It’s important to me as an artist to continue exploring the fullest range of expression so that I never feel limited by my creative output. I want to avoid categorization and confinement, by myself or by others. So in that sense, due to my prolific output and the variation in my art making, I have probably been fairly elusive in finding a common denominator, to the extent that a more generalized curiosity has developed amongst my audience.
There are some standouts of course; especially with the larger public art pieces such as the “Guardian” located in Brisbane and also the commission from Absolut called “Absolut Dahlsen”. Also the “Thong Totems” which won the Wynne prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, are well known.
Feedback which I receive generally covers most of the areas of my creative output, which expresses the unabated dumping of thousands of tons of plastics in my assemblages, with plastics, recycled plastic bags and driftwood, as well as installations, totems, digital prints, paintings and public artworks.
Many artists are now highlighting environmental concerns in their work, such as climate change. I am always hopeful that art can help shift awareness in a positive direction. I am also hopeful that the viewing public embraces these messages and is moved to act, for I firmly believe that at present we need all the help we can get to address the current ecological needs of our planet.
If just a fraction of this viewing public experienced a shift in their awareness, by virtue of exposure to my work, then all the labor and intention in the artistic process is for me, justified. Our planet is in a fragile ecological position, and global warming hastens unprecedented change. Never have we so urgently needed art and activism to boldly promote consciousness shifts around the health of our planet.
That said, I would say confidently that the most common denominator I receive in regards to my art, is the repeated response by the public to both the environmental statements I am making through the work and the positive contemporary aesthetic qualities that I bring to these statements.
