Carmel Wallace

Carmel Wallace is a multidisciplinary artist based in southwest Victoria on Gunditjmara Country. Her practice—spanning sculpture, installation, and printmaking—explores the intersection of place, environmental ethics, and material storytelling. Wallace often incorporates found and recycled materials, transforming coastal debris and forest remnants into works that reflect ecological narratives and human impact. She earned a PhD from Deakin University in 1999, focusing on art’s role in fostering environmental awareness. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Germany, the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, and the Warrnambool Art Gallery. Notable public artworks include Seat for Vida overlooking Portland Harbour and a collaborative stone sculpture at Kurtonitj with Vicki Couzens. Wallace is a recipient of the 2019 & 2024 Yering Station Sculpture Award. Through her art, she invites audiences to engage deeply with the natural world and consider their relationship to it.

Medicine Cope was created over an extended period of time with blister packs accumulated from prescriptions the artist relies upon for physical survival. Slowly these were hand-stitched together during pandemic times until a garment, a cope signifying both bodily and spiritual healing appeared. The artist’s home country is rich in native vegetation and wildlife. Seeking solace, she often walks along tracks winding through her local Cobboboonee Forest to the edge of the Southern Ocean experiencing the healing effects offered by these natural environments. Medicine Cope was conceived with this reference in mind too, extending reflections on health and fragility to habitat and the increasing vulnerability of the natural world in the face of exploitation and climate change. Now the disturbing escalation of persecution and violence [in Australia and internationally] makes a healing Medicine Cope all the more poignant for our times.