The term ‘causal nexus’ means the direct relationship between cause and effect

I heard the term for the first time through the Royal Commission into Defence and Suicide.

Researchers have found that for every suicide, 135 other people are impacted.

Causal Nexus explores suicide’s impact on our community. I made it using discarded figure drawings that I shredded, wove together, and glued onto a large board. In this way, cast-off representations of bodies were destroyed, remade and supported.

Afterwards, I laid a shroud of paper over the weaving and rubbed it with a variety of skin-toned crayons. As I did this, I listened to recorded hearings of the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide and realised my family’s suffering was tragically common.

I took the matrix into the print studio, and with a community of artists, we printed the work three times. Each time, the unity of marks became louder, stronger.

As a widow of a veteran suicide, I made a submission to the Royal Commission. It felt good to call for action and explain how institutions need to do better. Causal Nexus represents intertwined and suppressed stories and bodies of our community. It asks our institutions to embody a new form.

Print on rice paper, edition of 3, 150 × 80 cm

Frottage on rice paper, unique state, 150 × 80 cm