Victoria King

artist, writer

Come, see real

flowers

of this painful world.

Basho (1644-1694)

What does it mean to feel a sense of belonging, to be embodied and present in a specific place? Or to feel out of place, displaced, unconnected to ourselves and others? Can the woodlands, mountains, streams, rivers, seas, deserts, grasslands, towns, and cities of our childhood influence our sense of self and continue to resonate within us as adults? How important is nature when so many of us by necessity or choice live in cities? Does having a connection to the place we live really matter?

As an artist and writer who has lived in America, England, and Australia, I asked myself these questions as I observed my artwork radically change with conscious and unconscious intent in relation to those places. In 2000, I began to do research which resulted in my PhD: Art of Place and Displacement: Embodied Perception and the Haptic Ground (2005, UNSW). It included material from time I spent with the Canadian-American artist Agnes Martin in Taos, New Mexico, and my experiences volunteering with Aboriginal women artists for five years at the remote Aboriginal outstation of Utopia in the Northern Territory of Australia.

My sculptures, ceramics, paintings, photography, poetry, and essays reflect the power of place, displacement, and nature. In my writing, I combine research with reflections on my art practice, life and journeys across countries and cultures, and the ethics and responsibilities of being an artist. My artwork has been shown in over sixty art exhibitions, including fourteen solo exhibitions. A curated 25-year solo curated retrospective of my work was shown in two public venues in Australia in 2005, and a 40-year solo museum retrospective of my artwork was held in England between November 2021 and March 2022. My writing has been published in books and international journals, and my artwork has been chosen for nine book covers.

Dr. Giovanni Aloi, editor of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, interviewed me about Australian Aboriginal art and culture and my experiences at Utopia for the Antennae Spring 2023 edition, Issue 60. It can be read at: https://www.antennae.org.uk/back-issues-1

Spirit Ground, my essay on Agnes Martin's art and life in the American Southwest can be read at: Environmental and Architectural Phenomenology, Summer/Fall 2024, Volume 35, No. 2.

Poem by Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694) from On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho © Penguin Classics, 1985.

Top photo: Memento Mori sculpture series. Plaster-drenched recycled fabric over found objects.

Mono print on recycled paper, stoneware sculptural ceramics made from recycled clay, and sculpture made with recycled paper pulp sculpture and discarded pigments.

For information about sizes or prices, please email: vkblackstone@gmail.com

© Copyright of text and artwork Dr. Victoria King 2025.