Neva Shipwreck 190th Anniversary

This week marks the 190th anniversary of the Neva shipwreck.

It is also the 14 year anniversary of the creation of my first seaweed paper artwork – this funeral gown for the youngest Catherine aboard the fated Neva.

Funeral Gown for Baby Catherine Reilly, 6 months

marine macroalgae on paper

87 x 67.5 cm (framed)

This month also marks the 16 year anniversary of my artist residency on King Island, which is when I first began my seaweed paper experiments!

It took me 2 years before I had developed my seaweed papermaking techniques sufficient to create any resolved artworks, and I have come a very long way further since that time. However I am pleased that this first piece still holds up, even though it is far from perfect.

The Neva artworks are now dispersed around Australia – of the 42 pieces in the Neva Reliquary exhibition, only 3 remain unsold. However there is now a permanent display of images of some of these artworks in the Elizabeth Fort, Cork, Ireland, which is where the Neva women were housed prior to their departure to Australia.

You can read more about the Neva story and Neva Reliquary exhibition here, and you can read about the display in Cork here.