Lauren O’Connor

I put my hand among the flames nothing burns/Red Cedars, 2023

94 × 123 × 4 cm Acrylic on board with custom Blackwood frame

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“I put my hand among the flames, nothing burns/Red Cedars,” points to the history of cedar logging during settlement of the Illawarra region, Dharawal and Wodi Wodi country. Australian red cedar is a beautiful species of rainforest tree that was sadly logged to near extinction, in spring it turns this vibrant coppery red. This work was painted intuitively in copious layers of acrylic and house paint. Underpainting is hinted at within the resolved piece containing memory and pointing to the fluidity and rapid movement that are characteristic of my practice.

The title comes from a poem I've been reading by Sylvia Plath. One line in particular jumped out at me from "Poppies in July;" – I put my hand among the flames, nothing burns. A short but dark and complex poem – it strangely mirrors my feelings about exploitation of natural resources and colonisation."
The work was painted intuitively in copious layers of acrylic and house paint. Parts of the early underpainting are hinted at, specks of memory peeking through to the surface. These gestural, immediate marks are characteristic of my practice.

The title comes from a Sylvia Plath poem about changes in perception, and how seemingly insignificant experiences can change the way one views the world. “What I want back is what I was before the bed,” is a clear expression of Plath's longing, nostalgia and grief for something in her past, a niggling feeling she can't let go of. Sometimes I imagine how the landscape of the places I grew up in might have looked like before the sleep of colonisation, before destructive intervention.