Fiona Currey-Billyard Earth Canvas Resident Artist

For the RAD x Earth Canvas Residency, Fiona Currey-Billyard's project, Shadow Objects, is focused on a non-invasive, sustainable means of recreating surfaces, structures and objects from the regenerative farm in the studio.

Through the creation of a series of sculptural paper moulds, the project will record the surfaces of trees, paddocks, rocky outcrops and outbuildings on the property, drawing on the 19th-century technique developed by Pierre Victor Lottin de Laval (Lottin). His method of recording archaeological and architectural details was a reaction to the excesses of previous expeditions, which removed objects from their context as curiosities and for financial gain. Lottin used a water-based paper mixture moulded directly onto surfaces to create transportable moulds that preserved intricate forms and textures. Lottin's "lottinoplastie" captured not only physical detail but also the essence of place, a fragile record of form and context.