During my time as Artist in Residence at The Alfred Hospital Psychiatric ward - an acute mental health facility residency, I explored paper tapestry weavings. The weft and warp reflect the ebb and flow of the ever-changing landscape of mental well-being, representing resilience and strength within this non-linear journey.

Through weaving, I created a visual narrative of renewal, regeneration, and the process of becoming stronger. Like patchwork, where individual stories come together to make a whole, the paper tapestries symbolise our shared humanity and the reminder that we are not alone.

Each tapestry reflects lived experience, strength, individuality and connection. The weaving itself symbolises mental health consumers as layered, nuanced, and multifaceted beings - never defined solely by conditions or diagnoses, but recognised as whole and complex human beings.

In the creation of the weavings there was a freedom in making art that would ultimately be ripped apart. This played on the impermanence of all states and the joy of expression without being precious about the end result. There is difficulty in the reconstruction as there is also labour and time required in healing.

When the paper is weaved back together the tapestries takes on a new notion, life and story. There is light, dark, hope, joy and beauty in the unexpected results referencing the shared humanity, vulnerability and connections between consumers, peer workers and health care providers.