Mirror, mirrorRosslynd Piggott and Rudi Williams 
InterviewExhibited works

Interview:
Rosslynd Piggott and Rudi Williams 
In conversation with Sue Cramer


Melbourne, July 2024 

Nature



    • [Sue cramer]
Could you say a few words about nature as inspiration and as subject matter in your work, perhaps through such abstract qualities as colour and light? 

  • [Rosslynd Piggott]
I’m fortunate to have grown up close to nature, gardens, and gardening, and I’ve had extended periods of access to places of wild and unspoiled beauty. From a young age, my siblings and I learned an innate respect for nature. We were given reign to play in wild environments—we understood that there were real and significant dangers, and that we needed to closely observe our surroundings. Again, these experiences become part of your fabric. Nature and the observation of nature, even (especially) in the city, become part of one’s instinctive and informative reflex. For me, this is inseparable from my notion of beauty as oxygen and sustenance. 
  • These days, growing orchids in my studio is a joy; their wildly carnal organs contained in Japanese ikebana baskets resembling a miniaturized jungle landscape. On many walks during COVID lockdowns, I hunted for scented flowers peeking through neighbourhood garden fences for the subject matter of my evaporated flower paintings. Looking up to the sky in all its changing nuance was particularly important at this time. Swimming in both pools and oceans, especially in cold waters, is for me an experience akin to a soul and body temple—the experience is utter radiance. My observations and bodily experiences of light and particle space has become the subject of ongoing paintings.



Rosslynd Piggott, Torquay, Wadawurrung Country, 2024.


  • [RUDI WILLIAMS]
Like Ros, I have a strong connection to water and have enjoyed swimming in any weather from a young age. She and I have this in common. The first reflections I remember admiring were at the beach. When the waves pull back into the ocean and a thin layer of water covers the sand, illuminating and reflecting the sky. Light is a perennial condition of photography. Learning more about early photographic processes makes me interested in the chemicals I use in different processes and how these refined substances come originally from nature.



Rudi Williams, Sunnymeade beach, Aireys Inlet, Wadawurrung Country, 2021.