Installation combining mixed media sculpture, found bricks, thread and sand (dimensions vary) (2026)

Photographed by Louis Lim

Balancing Act presents a landscape of three mixed-media sculptures, precariously stacked and tethered to found bricks enclosed by sand. Inspired by the 2023–24 flooding caused by Cyclone Jasper in Far North Queensland, the worst flood event in the region’s recorded history, the work weaves together the surreal realities of environmental devastation and personal loss through biomorphic forms juxtaposed with displaced urban structures. Drawing from both personal experience and the broader communal impacts of the disaster on the artist’s hometown of Machans Beach; a small coastal community situated between the wetlands of the Barron River and the shoreline of the Great Barrier Reef, Vowles investigates false senses of security by encasing bandaged waste materials and dirt in resin. The work explores what it means to live on the frontlines of the climate crisis in Australia’s coastal and wetland regions, and reflects on the ongoing loss experienced by vulnerable communities.