HOLLY O’MEEHAN

Holly O’Meehan’s artwork interrogates the harsh effects current agriculture processes have on the natural environment. Inspired by the unique endemic flora and her connection to the landscapes of the South West and the Great Southern regions, O’Meehan combines this fascination with her experience of growing up on a cropping and cattle farm in regional WA. Even though it’s openly known that mono-cropping is highly destructive to the natural environment, it can be a surprise to learn that the largest parasitic plant in the world is found here in our own backyard, the Nuytsis Moojar in Nyoongar, a.k.a the WA Christmas

Tree. Its ability to disguise itself in order to hide its parasitic nature feels uneasy in its familiarity, acting somewhat similar to the image farmers portray to the untrained eye. The agriculture and farming culture from this same region similarly hides behind the ideology that we are “feeding the nation”, yet quietly disregarding the land and resources, redirecting it away from the incredibly unique natural vegetation of the region. Where these iconic trees once covered the entire South West region of WA, they now fill the gaps between farm boundaries and the occasional national park. Has the parasite fallen victim to a newer form of parasite?

Holly O’Meehan

Disguising Our Parasitic Tendencies (detail) 2023

Stoneware ceramic, glazes, underglaze, gold lustre and found soil

Working in her Boorloo/Perth studio, Holly O’Meehan appropriates natural forms in an attempt to highlight the beauty of the hidden and unassuming, exploring the macro/micro worlds of the natural vegetation found within the unique landscape of Western Australia’s South West region. O’Meehan has developed her approach throughout the course of a double Bachelor in Fine Arts and Art & Design at Curtin University (2014) and an intensive Ceramic Skill Set course at North Metropolitan TAFE (2020). She has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions and significant solo exhibitions, Elusive Tactility at Paper Mountain in 2018, and Defence/Defiance at Heathcote Gallery in 2021, as well as prizes such as the 2019 John Stringer Prize and the Joondalup Invitation Art Prize in 2022. Selected for a major 2017 residency with Art Ichol in India, and more recently the highly competitive funded residency at The Farm Margaret River in 2021.