Through my expanded sculptural practice I take a playful approach to form absurd objects, videos and installations. I also use sensorily engaging material approaches with food, scent and sound to invite the audience into the space. Haphazard and comical, there is deliberate ambiguity in the work, leaving space for chance. My practice-led research focuses on the tension between vulnerability and defiance, placing inner workings of the mind on public display. Methodologies of absurdity and resistance are used tactically to make assembled kinetic objects, video and sensory installations. This project frames struggle through a queer lens, utilising the body and these kinetic objects interchangeably to perform futile repetitive actions. Approaching the subject matter with humour is a deliberate tactic to disarm the audience and make space for inclusion which I amplify by opening access points that extend beyond purely visual means. By creating a sensory experience I hope to bypass a cerebral reading of the work to tap into the present moment unfolding in front of the audience. My practice uses familiar domestic objects but out of context to disrupt logical associations and unsettle normality. Familiar things and materials function as a form of mimesis of the everyday that can be skewed. In this unstable place, I follow personal logic to form new narratives around fragile social tensions.

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Anna Schwann, 2021  
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