Inspired by the 2022 floods and the devastation they brought to her family and friends, local art teacher Michelle Walker has created a sculpture which has been selected to feature in Queensland’s largest outdoor sculpture festival.
The three piece sculpture, holding it together ll, will be part of SWELL Sculpture Festival kicking off on the Gold Coast this week (September 6-16).
Walker witnessed firsthand the devastation of the floods in both Murwillumbah and Lismore with her studio, equipment and tools all getting completely flooded as well as the jewelry studio she worked in.
‘Driving back through a town we knew so well and seeing so many boarded-up places, feeling the devastation of it all, was very mind-boggling and sad. Friends had left and moved away from Lismore because they couldn’t face it again,’ said Ms Walker.
Sculptural commentary
Crafted from timber and steel, Michelle Walker says her latest piece embodies a powerful commentary on our relationship with the landscape and our response to climate-induced disasters.
She began creating the three sculptures in January and taught herself how to weld, transforming reclaimed materials like fence palings and rusty barbed wire into intricate, large-scale sculptures—much larger than anything she had worked on before.
Ms Walker has previously won the Environmental Awareness Award and the Emerging Artist Award at the SWELL Sculpture Festival.
This year’s festival will feature over 60 artists, marking the largest influx of artists the festival has ever seen.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
