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Surface of the Everyday: An Artist Book Exploring Kayaking, Nature, and Impermanence in Moreton Bay
Surface of the Everyday is an artist book that grew out of my kayaking experiences around the islands in Moreton Bay, near my hometown of Brisbane (Australia).
My partner Craig and I are regular paddlers in our Prijon kayaks, and I also have a small inflatable kayak which enables me to get out onto the water by myself.
During one of my kayaking journeys, I noticed the way plant and animal debris floated on and beneath the water’s surface—gently moving and suspended by the tides. These fragments of life—leaves, seaweed, casuarina branchlets, feathers—seemed to be on their own endless, drifting journey. I began observing the detail, collecting pieces, and reflecting about time and impermanence.
Surface of the Everyday became my way of recording those encounters—not as linear narrative, but as spatial memory. The artwork is made from multiple clear Perspex sheets, each one printed with monotypes of objects I gathered while kayaking.
Each layer is separated by magnets, which allow the book to be stacked, deconstructed, and reassembled in situ. There’s no spine or fixed binding—just transparent pages held in tension, creating depth, light shifts, and subtle shadows depending on where you stand. The base is a mirrored tile that reflects not just the artwork, but me—and now, the viewer. Whoever looks down sees their own image fragmented through the leaves, as if looking over the side of the kayak, or as if suspended in the same drifting space.
This mirrored base was an intentional choice. It became a way to hold a quiet confrontation: with my own impermanence, with the triviality of human movement compared to the scale of natural cycles. Looking into it, I see myself mingled with decay and debris, my reflection part of the detritus.
I wanted this book to feel like water, to feel like movement. It’s a book you don’t flip through but stand before and experience all at once – slowly and spatially—like time passing, like tides turning. The magnets give it flexibility so I can constructed it wherever it’s displayed, each time slightly different depending on light, surface, and space.
Finally, I wrote a short poem, echoing my reflections of my kayaking experience:
the stretching of a cotton tree branch through space
in search of light, dappled patterning through which
i slide onto the milky surface of the everyday –
a skin of suspended debris and decay
on unseen sea paths,
time and tide flowing to nowhere
on a soundless journey with no end.
i pass in meditative motion
dissolving, leaving no trace beyond a wake
across the surface of the everyday.
This book is my quiet tribute to what often goes unseen—the small fragments drifting, carried by the rhythms of moon, tide, and wind.
Artwork Details
Title: Surface of the Everyday
Date: 2018 -2025
Place Made: Brisbane
Edition: Variable Edition of 2
Dimensions: 30cm x 30cm x 20cm
Materials & Techniques: Monoprints on Perspex, stacked with magnets, assembled atop a non-glass mirrored tile
Binding/Structure: No traditional binding though strongly influenced by the Tunnel Book format; layers are magnetically stacked, enabling in-situ assembly