Transforming trauma into art

Trauma, like carbon, can be transformed into something precious with the passage of time. But while diamonds – formed out of carbon by eons of extreme heat and pressure – are incredibly beautiful when cut and polished, transforming traumatic life experiences into art is a far less certain process, and can easily result in something that’s memorable for all the wrong reasons.

‘Blueprint was made not long after my parents’ home, our family home in Canberra, had been burned to the ground in the 2003 bushfires. It was a quite physical and quite visual work and it pretty much looked at grief, because at that point we were still very much in shock,’ Pollard explained.