Constance ARI

The connection between the mind, body and spirit manifests in different ways. We have gut feelings; intuitive or emotional responses to people and experiences. These may be felt as a hunch or physical responses in our Guts. My work expresses a hesitation, the space between transforming materiality into matter and matter into materiality; it is a physical expression of a state in-between, of a liminal space.

In 2006 Ali undertook a residency in New York with the American fibre artist Pat Hickman, made possible through an Arts Tasmania grant. Guts is based on ideas developed from this residency. In 2006 Ali completed a commission for the Dorset Council at North East Park in Scottsdale Tasmania. She completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in sculpture at the School of Visual and Performing Arts, at the University of Tasmania in Launceston, receiving a University of Tasmania Scholarship to undertake this study. Ali currently teaches drawing at the SVPA and has taught workshops in casting and ephemeral sculpture for various groups. She has completed two Public Art Commissions for Arts Tasmania, and one for the Launceston City Council. She won the Bill Roberts Tasmania University Travelling Scholarship in Fine Arts and participated in 10 Days on the Island Festival in 2003.