In 2006 I won the Signature of Sydney, at the time Australia's richest art prize, with a work called The Sydney Kiss.
The brief was to create a new contemporary icon of the city. To capture its spirit, its people, its energy, its particular aliveness. I wanted something that transcended architecture and landmarks. Something felt rather than seen.
A kiss. Spontaneous, passionate, instantly understood across every culture. Within the lips, Sydney's iconic skyline. Look closer and you find the harbour, the heart of it all. Everything held within one image. Holistic. Whole.
Even then, before the SoulCircles, before the language of presence had fully formed in me, I was reaching for the same thing, art that makes you feel something. Art that, in the viewing of it, quietly lifts you.
Winning that night at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney, surrounded by the city I'd tried to distil into a single image, that was a moment of full circle. In more ways than one.
Photographed at the Signature of Sydney Gala and Auction for the Make A Wish Foundation, Sydney. Photography: Christian Mushenko.
Some works arrive as statements. This one arrived as a whisper. Slip into the Silence, You'll Find Me There is an ink-on-paper SoulCircle in soft greys and lilac, held within a gentle circular form that doesn't ask for attention so much as offer a pause.