Rachel Zimmermann
Biography
Rachel Zimmermann graduated from Cumbria College of Art and Design, United Kingdom in 1999 after which she completed a Postgraduate Certificate of Education. Since graduation she has continued to develop her own creative practice as well as fulfilling her role as an Arts educator both within school institutions and community organisations.
In 2005, Rachel embarked upon a ‘big adventure’ migrating across the globe from the United Kingdom to Western Australia. Since arriving in Australia, Rachel has been involved in a number of collaborative community Arts projects such as ‘The Great Knit’ and ‘Under the sea’. She has also worked alongside both school students, the elderly and those with disabilities to promote their art work within the wider community.
In 2007, Rachel made a decision to dedicate more of her time to her own creative practice. This decision coincided with her desire to share her history with those around her. She began to develop a series of paper and found object installations that recalled key aspects of her own personal history.
Rachel's childhood was a rich tapestry of experiences and adventures within an environment that encouraged imaginative play and creative making. At this early stage, Rachel had a desire to be a maker. She was absorbed and intrigued by materials and processes. She vividly remembers working with her brother James to set up a post office in the front room. Stamps were hand drawn and then carefully perforated using her mothers singer sewing machine. The completed stamps were then applied to an array of parcels, packages and letters.
It is the memory of events such at this that have inspired Rachel's installation pieces. The installations themselves becoming the vehicle by which she can share her story. Highly narrative, humorous and familiar the artworks reveal snippets of her joyous childhood.
The mixed media installations are constructed using a series of found and made papers which are intricately hand cut into tiny elements of the overall composition. Each element is then carefully placed within a framed box preserving that ‘moment of time’ forever.
Rachel’s resourcefulness has always featured throughout her art works. In her installation pieces she often uses the tiniest scrap of paper as a beak for an Owl or utilizes the inside of an envelope to create textured clouds. Her resourcefulness stems from the necessity to be frugal in her early teaching career. The basic materials and limited resources provided often resulted in her devising highly innovative arts projects. Rachel continues to be inspired at how students rely more upon their own creative ability when they are given limited materials.
It was Rachel’s reflection upon the concept of resourcefulness that lead to the creation of the the flat dolly and bear range. The dollies and bears are carefully constructed and embellished using remnant fabrics. Rachel received her own dolly, aged 2. It was hand made by her mother using remnants of clothing fabrics, wool scraps and pantyhose. The flat dollies and bears are symbolic of Rachel’s relationship to her own hand made dolly, ‘Jemima’ and the exciting dialogue that occurred between them.
In 2008, Rachel was invited to join the SODA studio group as a resident artist. She became full immersed in a working ceramics studio. Although she continued to pursue creating her art works from paper and fabric she became increasingly enticed to revisit her first love of ceramics. Currently, Rachel is developing a ceramic installation piece entitled ‘In her shoes’. Taking the familiar object of the shoe, Rachel will construct from clay the significant shoes that have featured in her life; from her first ever shoes to her first ever pair of flip flops. Each pair of shoes will be accompanied by photographic imagery and written story recalling the historical significance of the piece.