About
Strange Things

These works draw inspiration from the protists, fungi, lichen, mosses, and plant life that inhabit the Takayna region of western Tasmania, one of the world’s last surviving Gondwana rainforests. The forms present themselves as imagined entities that embody the spirit of this ancient ecosystem, reflecting the dense networks of life that exist beneath the forest canopy. 

Kawabata fuses the hand-made with the experimental, transforming industrial textile waste into sculptural forms that feel both organic and otherworldly. Through processes of stitching, dyeing, painting, and resin application, she creates objects that appear as relics from another civilisation or as specimens unearthed from the forest floor — oscillating between design object and sculptural artefact.

Her practice is driven by material curiosity and a sustained investigation into sustainability and transformation. By reconfiguring discarded textiles into objects of renewed significance, Kawabata challenges conventional ideas about value, labour, and permanence. The process of working with waste materials is not simply an act of reuse but a way of reimagining how materials can be given new purpose through intention, time, and craft.

Each work becomes a reflection on cycles of use, decay, and renewal — tracing the passage of material through systems of production and consumption. In doing so, Kawabata invites viewers to consider the broader ecological and cultural implications of making.

Her work reminds us that transformation is both a physical and conceptual act: one that acknowledges fragility while celebrating the persistence of life that adapts, regenerates, and endures.