Lisa Sewards | SHORT STORIES

Melbourne's lockdown severely impacted the amount of time the artist could spend in her studio. As a result, during her extended time at home, Sewards began reading Australian short stories. She was intrigued by the way a writer swiftly draws one into their story, and then just as swiftly leaves you to wonder and contemplate the story further within your own creative imagination. Sewards was drawn to those stories with underlying threads and motifs about displacement, hope and humanity, the threads connecting to her previous bodies of work and solo exhibitions. Climate change was also a strong undercurrent in many of the stories and along with a global pandemic, a reminder of the vulnerability of our world.

Each book turned into a capsule of reflection and hope, leading to a body of work that celebrates and pays homage to Australian short stories. The intersection of the visual arts and literature is a powerful combination and continues to bring important messages to the forefront of people's minds and conversations. The imagery reflects and reimagines the narratives, extracting symbolic motifs from the written pages. The publications that inspired SHORT STORIES include the very first published Australian short story book held in the State Library of Victoria, to one whose publisher closed this year leaving only a raw manuscript, to a small selection of the huge talent of contemporary authors and writers in Australia.