Contemporary Australian artist Kate Baker combines bold experimentation, a mastery of material and a confident aesthetic to produce innovative and evocative works not being created elsewhere in the contemporary art world.

Baker’s new body of work, Flux, employs the materials of aluminium and studio glass to form visual ‘environments’ in which digital and screen printed imagery is then layered within. The outcome is a series of dramatic large-scale wall works that eloquently explore ideas of translucence, ambience and states of transition.

The result is ghostly, elusive and suggestive; the viewer is drawn to reflect on concepts of decay, residue, renewal and flux. Ethereal figures merge and are submerged within their environment suggestive of an eerie yet alluring psychological underworld. Baker’s photography forms a myriad of layered imagery exploring the relationship between our internal and external worlds, and the worlds that exist within worlds.

‘As individuals, we are in a natural and constant state of flux, existing and then dissolving with the passage of time,’ Baker explains ‘Whilst inseparable from our physicality we mostly live our lives within imagined spaces that are even more intangible and transient than our physical experience.’

Incorporating little known and little-used techniques, Baker locks images and textures within layers of melted glass and also onto metal. After heating and melting the imagery within the glass, Baker then carves the surface of each glass panel to create beautifully finished works with exquisite textures and surfaces.

Flux is quiet, contemplative and emotional. Baker’s unique approach to blending studio glass with the mediums of photography and print-media has seen her emerge as one of Australia’s most intriguing and refreshing young artists working today.