Nicole Voevodin-Cash

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2025 - Finalist

_{Image courtesy of the artist}

Artist Statement

My work evolves from using the vernacular of furniture—old mattresses, seating, and domestic forms—into quieter, tactile objects that hold meaning through use.

This series of hand-hooked rugs, made with a Donella needle and up cycled wool, transforms familiar materials into visually tactile works that suggest touch through their crafted surface and embedded language.

Words like loss, done, happens, and potential are looped into bright, soft surfaces that reference confectionery but carry deeper emotional weight. These are not just décor; they resist comfort’s gloss, confronting the unspoken narratives of aging, grief, and resilience. It’s a shift from casting physical form to embedding language—phrases we walk on, absorb, overlook, or carry with us.

Each piece challenges domestic sentimentality, rejecting hollow affirmations like “life’s a beach” in favour of asking: what does it mean to wipe your feet on potential? To rest on loss? They offer felt encounters—subtle but insistent—calling us to question what comfort hides.