Isadora Vaughan

Isadora current work engages with the concept of novel ecosystems—drawn from the fields of environmental conservation and restoration—as a framework for examining the systems of value that shape our experiences and interactions with the material world. Central to this inquiry is her studio-based sculptural practice, which serves as a point of convergence for exploring material encounters within the local environment, a landscape situated between remnant waterways, heavy industry, and suburban development.

In this context, materials function not merely as passive substances but as carriers of complex political and cultural values. Their presence reveals the limitations of conventional approaches that treat both living and non-living matter as static or predetermined. By considering novel ecosystems as dynamic material assemblages, her work investigates how such entanglements can be spatially articulated through sculpture, offering a means to critically engage with the changing ecologies of the contemporary landscape.

Vaughan has created new commissions for The National 2021: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, Sydney; Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; and TarraWarra Biennial 2018: From Will to Form, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria. Vaughan has had significant solo exhibitions at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, and Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne.

Isadora Vaughan, After Solutions, 2015
Isadora Vaughan, Cunjevoi, 2016
Isadora Vaughan, Doing Mass, Matter Action, 2013
Isadora Vaughan, Blue Carbon Sink, 2018
Isadora Vaughan, Harvest, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Tributaries (Acid), 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Grub (Eclipse), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Slaty Cleavage #1, 2015
Isadora Vaughan, Healthy Nuclear Ghost, 2018
Isadora Vaughan, The Myth of the Lodociea, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Cone, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Recalcitrant Bodies, 2017
Isadora Vaughan, Mites, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Slaty Cleavage, 2015
Isadora Vaughan, Recalcitrant Bodies, 2017
Isadora Vaughan, Brickworks (Touch, Cut, Embed), 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Tributaries (Brine), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Embedding tunnels (Oil), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Slippery Mattering, 2014
Isadora Vaughan, Recalcitrant Bodies, 2017
Isadora Vaughan, Brickworks (Touch, Cut, Embed) (detail), 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Treasure, 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Embedding tunnels (Matte), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Untitled, 2014
Isadora Vaughan, Gouge'n Spatch, 2014
Isadora Vaughan, Metabolic Rift, 2018
Isadora Vaughan, Sterilisation, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Doom Drain, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Soil Slag, Clean Fingers, 2015
Isadora Vaughan, Gaia Not The Goddess, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Grub (dividing, engorged), 2020
Isadora Vaughan, Embedding tunnels (Residue), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Crater, 2016
Isadora Vaughan, Soil Slag, 2015
Isadora Vaughan, Dial, 2018
Isadora Vaughan, Spent Bodies, 2019
Isadora Vaughan, Tributaries (Mud), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Grub (Hooves), 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Embedding tunnels (Undercoat), 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Residues, 2022
Isadora Vaughan, Grafted sapling, 2021
Isadora Vaughan, Metabolic Rift, 2018
Isadora Vaughan, Tess, 2017
Isadora Vaughan, Tess (detail), 2017