Georgia MacGuire: In her skin
The paper bark of the melaleuca tree sloughs from its trunk like a skin. When attached, it is a thick sinew, but up close diaphanous layers disintegrate between your fingertips. For artist Georgia MacGuire, it was this somatic quality that first attracted her to the bark that littered the streets of Melbourne’s northern suburbs: fleshy and flyaway, it seemed the perfect material for her next body of work. Yet it was the artist’s understanding of the bark’s traditional use – as bandages imbued with healing antiseptic oil – Karla Dickens: It’s not bloody art that confirmed her decision.
