Nicole Voevodin-Cash

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist

Nicole Voevodin-Cash | Presence | 2024 | polyethylene, nylon, tulle, netting, organza, recycled mesh and cotton | 25 x 50 x 20cm (variable)

There is a legend in Japan about the Venus Flower Basket, a delicate sea sponge that shelters two shrimp for life, symbolising love and memory held in fragile yet enduring forms. Inspired by this, my work explores how we bind memories of love and loss to the objects we keep, much like the Japanese art of shibori, which means “binding.”

Here, shibori becomes a way of preserving memory, shaping translucent, recycled mesh into forms that hold both presence and absence. Rooted in the loss of my parents, this work transforms the ordinary objects they left behind—shells from family holidays, treasured trinkets, and everyday keepsakes—into delicate vessels of remembrance. Suspended in and sat on translucent shapes, these objects resemble memory cells and plinths to make significant and to capture fleeting traces of life once lived.

In creating these forms, I seek to both hold on and let go, to preserve the intangible before it fades. Each piece is a quiet homage, a way of honouring love and loss while making space for what comes next—an echo of the past, delicately bound in material and memory.