Emma Magnusson-Reid
Drifted Matter - here nor there (2025)

Edition 1/3

Aquatint with embossment on Hahnemühle
Plate: 42 x 59.4cm - Paper: 53 x 78cm

Drifted Matter - here nor there is part of a continuous practice of collection and multiplication, developed through iterative monotype, embossing, and copper etching techniques. This series currently explores both the presence and absence of the introduced Seaside Barley, a common, now naturalised grass species within lutruwita-Tasmania.

Pressed as brittle seed-head embossments against acid-bitten copper plate, these delicate plant matter forms account for the constant unfolding of colonial impact within the landscape I habitually observe, drifting and multiplying unrestrainedly across fence lines and river boundaries, rooting even within supposedly conserved crown enclaves. The work captures both natural and altered states, a tracing of what has replaced native plants for sheep and bovine feed, while leaving a tactile memory of their pervasive genetic blueprint. I find these white slender absences are both pleasing and unnerving as they emerge from the velvety, fluid aquatinted ground, similarly to how I myself might float upon and within the water surfaces of this same place.

Emma Magnusson-Reid is a contemporary visual artist based on the north-east coast of lutruwita / Tasmania. Her multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, works on paper, and installation, and explores the intimate connections between nature, biology, and ancestral identity. Through speculative concepts and iterative approaches, she reflects on shifting environments and the emotions they provoke. Her sensitive approach weaves together materials, place, and process, examining human impact and what it means to live in close relationship with the modern ‘natural’ world. Originally from rural north-west coast, she now practices from her studio within the Five Mile Bluff Nature Conservation Area and teaches drawing and printmaking at the School of Creative Arts and Media, UTAS Inveresk.

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