Ella Boas - self in shiny wobbly board

Ella Boas
self in shiny wobbly board (2021)
Acrylic on board
54.5 x 58.5cm

Raised in a small coastal village in Queensland, Ella Boas was drawn south in 2019 to pursue studies in architecture and design with the University of Tasmania. Her practice explores the intersections of art, architecture, ecology and design, with a particular interest in human inhabitation patterns, sensory experience, material reuse and decomposition.

Boas attempts to make sense of the world around her through observational mark-making, she sketches her environment (built and natural) to understand her position in it and her way of seeing it. She regularly investigates how others perceive and engage with their environments by asking them to draw for her.

Naturally occurring ephemeral representations of surroundings intrigue Boas; a reflection in a puddle, glass facade, saucepan or sheet of scrap metal exists for only a moment and presents the viewer with a distorted but truthful vision of place and self as part of place. The process of capturing what she sees in these moments, in these surfaces, facilitates an exploration of identity, perception, interpretation, and place.