This essay was commissioned for publication in a monograph on artist Cressida Campbell (2023, National Gallery of Australia Publishing) published to accompany her exhibition at the gallery in 2022-2023.
It was a joy writing this piece – it grew from an afternoon spent together in Cressida’s Sydney home/studio/garden. We ate, fiddled around with flowers and talked about art. I tried very hard to interview her while she did a very good job of interviewing me. Somehow some words emerged that, I think, say something of how Cressida sees.
… A platter of sliced tomato, burrata and basil seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper lies on the table between us. Green salad and hunks of toasted bread. I watch Cressida bundle a parcel of salad in a lettuce leaf with her hands. She rolls it neatly before eating it. It makes sense to me that she feels her food like this, vacillating between fork and fingers. It is my tendency too. The desire to see through touch.
I turn my voice recorder on. I am here, after all, to conduct an interview. Most people enjoy the attention. Many are hard to stop. Rarely has anyone turned an interview around so comprehensively as Cressida Campbell. She does not seem to be a person who needs to tell others of herself in order to be seen. I find myself talking about my home on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, how we travel to and from it via boat, what the community is like. I am embarrassed when listening to the audio file days later. How much I talked and how often, too, with a mouth half-full of food.