FERTILE TERRAINS brings together Queensland College of Art and Design graduates Diane Green, Leisa Turner, and Pat Malt in a multidisciplinary exhibition that explores care, identity, and resistance through a distinctly feminist lens. Across photography, ceramics, embroidery, drawing, and painting, each artist offers a deeply personal reflection on contemporary female experience.
Leisa Turner presents staged photographic portraits exploring neurodivergent “masking” and the emotional labour embedded in daily life. Featuring handmade ceramic masks and salvaged textile works stitched with golden phrases of internalised critique, her work is inspired by Kintsugi and the inherited resilience of vulnerable identities.
Diane Green elevates the sacred in acts of care. Through 24 ceramic pieces referencing pre-Christian and Christian iconography, she reimagines mothering as a universal, shared practice. Works such as Yoni Vessel and Madonna of the Serpents challenge traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary to honour nurturance across all bodies and beings.
Pat Malt confronts narrow ideals of feminine beauty through raw, dysgraphic representations of the female form. Her practice in drawing, painting, and cameraless photography subverts traditional iconography to assert agency, defiance, and multiplicity in female identity.
Together, these works move through radical vulnerability, sacred re-evaluation, and bold reclamation—offering fertile terrain for new conversations around visibility, care, and power.
Opening event: Friday 8th August, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Image: Leisa Turner
