Through the field of contemporary installation, Judith Klavins moving image work poetically engages and speculates upon her connection to the coast; its flux and unpredictability.

After finding a family diary in the Tasmanian archives, she began thinking about her maternal ancestors in the 1830's; a retired sealer and a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, who raised a family on King Island, in the middle of Bass Strait. The archives reveal that such relationships were often coercive.

Using a practice led methodology which focusses on the use of minimal materials and ‘careful handling’, Klavins works in co-production with her materials. By responding to the gaps in archival narratives, Klavins thinks about these troubling and complex histories.

In Klavins work, the fraying silk maintains its inner strength, responding to the ebb and flow of unseen forces. In the repetition of these micro moments, Klavins invites viewers to become immersed in the uncertainty of the experience; allowing feelings of connection, and dis-connection.

Whilst Klavins does not personally or culturally identify as a First Nations person, her work addresses her maternal ancestral history, and the infinite ways of being in the world.

Judith Klavins is a finalist in the UnitCare Services Digital Media Award and The Advertiser Contemporary Art Award for this work.