Louise Palmer is a New Zealand artist currently based in Christchurch where she is a Senior Lecturer in sculpture at the Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury and a Master of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. She exhibits, and has curated exhibitions, in New Zealand and Australia. Her research draws on sculptural conventions such as casting and site specificity, with significant temporary projects and publicly sited works in NZ.

‘My current research practice explores the intersection between sculptural conventions and the personal underpinnings of an artwork,’ Palmer says. ‘I have drawn on sculptural approaches such as casting and site-specificity, which inform the work both materially and conceptually. It is through a reconsideration of tradition that the role of contemporary sculpture is explored; cast and reformed from residues of everyday life, recent sculptures and installations suggest a rethinking of the conventional meanings and values ascribed to objects and places.

‘Ongoing research draws on an experimental consideration of traditional sculptural materials and techniques, and an innovative approach to making and re-presenting objects. Recycled materials and everyday forms are the starting point for an ongoing series of cast plaster, concrete and bronze sculptures. In works such as Ghost Shadows, Campus, everyday objects and forms are cast, reformed and repositioned. These objects perform acts of recycling as the prosaic items are rendered strange and ambiguous through replication and repetition.

‘Site and place also inform works which are responsive to environment, referencing and intervening with existing architectures and surrounding landscape. My investigation into site and place in solo presentations of work such as Ghost Shadows, Campus, 90 Canon, and Homeshow, 90 Canon interrogate the conventions of exhibition practice by presenting major works in self-initiated projects that address the specificity of site and context. This interdisciplinary research practice is expanded to consider the role of the artist as curator as well as maker.’