Amy Joy Watson examines the human propensity for imagining different and better worlds from a highly personal and idiosyncratic point of view. There is the presence of a childlike alter ego in the work, suggesting a subtle sense of nostalgia for the joys of childhood play and a way of seeing mystery and possibility in everything. Eccentric objects and environments such as mutant clams with gobstoppers for pearls and machines that fly helium balloon, come from the artist’s imagination. The imagined worlds of childhood are transcribed through the adult patience and refinement of her painstaking production methods. Watson often employs delicate hand-stitching of segments of finely cut balsa wood to create geometric forms. The recent inclusion of unexpected outré materials – helium balloons, glow-in-the-dark pigments and glitter – have caused these works to wobble, spin, glisten and levitate.

Amy Joy Watson (born 1987 in Adelaide, Australia) completed a Bachelor of Visual Art with honors in 2008 graduating from Adelaide Central School of Art. Watson has shown in various solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia including a solo exhibition at GRANTPIRRIE Gallery in Sydney and at the Contemporary Art Center of South Australia’s Project Space. She undertook a two-month studio residency at Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin in 2009. Watson has been successful in winning several CARCLEW, Helpmann and Arts SA grants and was awarded the 2011 CARCLEW Ruth Tuck Travelling Scholarship. She has received various awards locally and internationally, including the 3rd Ward Brooklyn Open Call Early Entry Prize in 2011. Howard was awarded the 2011 Adelaide Critics Circle Contemporary Art Award and won the 2009 Core Energy Group Sculpture Award and the 2009 SAlife Emerging Artist Award.