Memory, identity, allusion, symbolism - these are essential elements in Megan Huffadine’s art that enchant, stimulate and inspire.

Consolidating the promise and accomplishment of previous works, Megan Huffadine’s latest exhibition alms for the memory keeper demonstrates a heightened awareness, complexity and directness in her exploration and focus on the rituals of gathering and display. Huffadine responds to those rituals by formulating and arranging expertly sculptured objects placing them in compositions which reflect those ideas. These familiar yet wilfully ambiguous objects allude to the nature of collecting.

Huffadine’s means of expressing ideas varies. In alms for the memory keeper we see two distinct correlating bodies of work emerging – that which involves a cabinet-like container and the other in which the container is absent. It is in this way that Huffadine invites us to think about the content in her work while also drawing our attention to the idea of a container. Could the container be conceived as a room, a frame surrounding a painting, a reliquary, or could it be our memory or subconscious compartmentalised? Consider how the individual objects are arranged and contained, and the idea of containment. In works such as Chant No 2: i hear them (hidden in my heart) and Chant No 1: they sing to me (in the night) each object is nestled in its own little compartment, cherished and protectively tucked away. Thoughts of nurture and protection emerge yet perhaps also confinement. Are the objects displayed in this way with the gatherer intending to share these memories, or are they secret and hidden, eliciting moments of private joy? (1)

Offering quite a different perspective, works such as a page of incantations and collection of charms involve a collection of multiple objects arranged freely on the wall. In the absence of a container the objects reveal a greater sense of freedom and direct openness. The negative space emphasises and enhances the form of each individual object evoking a playful visual conversation about the compositions complexity.

Acting as caches of memory, meaning permeates through association and mere suggestion. Evolving from the artists own experiences, perceptions and observations of collections gathered by others , each individually sculpted form is symbolic yet deliberately open to interpretation. While clues are presented within the title of each work, intricate narratives unfold according to the responses and experiences of each individual. Huffadine invites us, the viewer, to physically interact with each work, to move and rearrange the individual objects, to recompose and recreate. In this way we too participate in the ritual of gathering and displaying. “The works possess another life in the hands of the viewer; they become the story teller, gathering new meanings and associations into the work”. (2)

The relationship between display, sculpture and painting is also an influence in Huffadine’s practise. Her work demonstrates a deliberate ambiguity between painting and sculpture which reflects the indistinct divisions that occur between the physicality of experience and the ephemeral nature of memory. “By making sculptures that sometimes first appear as paintings I hope to again engage the viewer with this dichotomy”. (3)

Huffadine’s work truly possesses the power of enchantment. It has an astounding ability to commune and uplift, to carry the viewer over to the secrets, to the implied narratives within.

1. Artist statement, 2007.
2. Artist statement, 2009.
3. Ibid.