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.
After Solutions
2015
plaster, cloth, aluminium, tambarc
dimensions variable
Cunjevoi
2016
Installation view
Doing Mass, Matter Action
2013
installation view
Blue Carbon Sink
2018
glass, crushed rock, sand
40.5 cm diameter
Harvest
2019
installation view
Tributaries (Acid)
2022
steel frames with glass insets
176.0 x 60.0 x 36.0 cm
Grub (Eclipse)
2021
ceramic
45.0 x 70.0 x 38.0 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Slaty Cleavage #1
2015
enamel on copper
59.0 x 39.3 cm
Healthy Nuclear Ghost
2018
bronze and uranium glass
22.5 x 17.0 cm
The Myth of the Lodociea
2019
installation view
Cone
2019
stoneware with yellow oxide and beeswax
60.0 x 36.0 x 36.0 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Recalcitrant Bodies
2017
installation view
Photo: André Piguet
Mites
2019
stoneware with yellow oxide and beeswax
73.0 x 60.0 x 50.0 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Slatey Clevage
2015
enamel on copper
380.0 x 210.0 cm
Recalcitrant Bodies
2017
installation view
Photo: André Piguet
Brickworks (Touch, Cut, Embed)
ceramic, steel, epoxy, found materials
Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award
Photo: Christian Capurro
Tributaries (Brine)
2021
steel frames with glass insets
176.0 x 60.0 x 36.0 cm
Embedding tunnels (Oil)
2021
ceramic panel
58.0 x 38.0 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Slippery Mattering
2014
installation view
Recalcitrant Bodies
2017
installation view
Photo: André Piguet
Brickworks (Touch, Cut, Embed) (detail)
2019
ceramic, steel, epoxy, found materials
Photo: Christian Capurro
Treasure
2021
ceramic
24.0 x 40.0 cm
Embedding tunnels (Matte)
2021
ceramic panel
61.0 x 34.5 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Untitled
2014
plaster and ceramic (embedded in the wall)
40.0 x 18.0 cm
Gouge'n Spatch
2014
timber stack coated in pigmented lubricant, paint
120.0 x 30.0 cm
Metabolic Rift
2018
installation view
Sterilisation
2019
Dutch trollies, stoneware with yellow oxide and beeswax
Bilirubin Bezoar
Doom Drain
2022
fibreglass and recycled plastic, bolts
56.0 x 56.0 x 18.0 cm
Soil Slag, Clean Fingers
2015
compressed soil and crushed stone (heat treated)
dimensions variable
Gaia Not The Goddess
2019
installation view
Grub (dividing, engorged)
2020
fired stoneware
62.0 x 46.0 x 66.0 cm
Embedding tunnels (Residue)
2021
ceramic panel
30.0 x 30.0 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Crater
2016
fired stoneware and cephalopods, squid ink stained porcelain
dimensions variable
Soil Slag
2015
installation view
Dial
2018
bronze
20.5 cm diameter
Spent Bodies
2019
mycelium, steel
Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne
Tributaries (Mud)
2021
steel frames with glass insets
176.0 x 60.0 x 36.0 cm
Grub (Hooves)
2021
ceramic
40.0 x 53.0 x 43.0 cm
Embedding tunnels (Undercoat)
2022
ceramic panel
41.0 x 33.5 cm
Residues
2022
installation view
Grafted sapling
2021
plastic, epoxy, bolts
54.5 x 32.0 x 28.0 cm
Metabolic Rift
2018
installation view
Tess
2017
installation view
Tess (detail)
2017
molded unrefined beeswax, headphones playing 'Proximity' by Clementine
dimensions variable