Sydney Exhibition
Charne Eade

23 October – 2 November, 2025
Opens Thursday 23 October, 6 – 8pm

Artist Statement

Urbanised nature is the thematic concept which drives my practice. As a child growing up on the Hawkesbury River, I was immersed in the landscape daily, forging a deeply embedded relationship with nature. My adult years, in contrast, have been spent urban dwelling primarily in the Inner West of Sydney. Merging these two experiences artistically, I developed an interest in the parallel between the natural and man-made altering, embracing these interruptions that speak of place and time; a beautiful interruption.

Inspiration for Thread Through Nature comes from a playful interpretation of the local landscape of the Inner West. It considers aspects of critical thinking around ‘beautiful interruptions’ such as graffiti and mural art, which are a growing appreciation of the local area.

My work plays with concepts around colour blocking, which references the concrete developments that create a hardline contrast to the organic surroundings. Nature-inspired shapes and lines are endlessly explored, while intense colour is a nod to contemporary culture. Proposed works will present this juxtaposition with a varied voice that echoes the ever-changing and sometimes harsh beauty of the urban. Aspects of worn beauty are recreated to form the foundation of the artworks and reflect the beauty in the ageing process of our natural and developed surroundings.

Combining methods of abstraction and deconstruction, mark-making is explorative and intuitively driven, mimicking nature’s energy. Handcrafted surfaces feature alongside considered techniques of stencilling, developed from direct tracings of nature and seen as repeated motifs and intricate dotted line-work. The stencils are hand-cut, which further responds to my sensitive approach to place, while also acting as a visual inventory and an archival of 6me. The use of spray paint and stencil plays with the urban concept once again and is then placed alongside traditional mark-making, before removing paint via electric sanding. This speaks directly to our constant adding and subtracting of the landscape and conceptually presents a narrative between abstraction and subject.