Louella Michael

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2026 - Finalist

_{Image courtesy of artist.}

Louella Michael
QLD

Untitled experience
2024
Crochet quilt
125 x 125cm

Untitled Experience heightens awareness of the cognitive shifts we undertake hundreds of times a day when transitioning from physical- to online space. Through scanning the work, viewers are taken to a web-form and directed through a looping series of awareness shifts that redirect attention between the two spaces.

A QR code is only useful in physical encounters (printed materials or on screen) to direct you somewhere online – functionally, a portal that facilitates further engagement online. Predominantly used in marketing contexts, a QR code is best equipped for consumer follow-through and data collection. Untitled Experience undermines this prescribed purpose by repeatedly asking the viewer to leave the online space to focus more on their physical surroundings. Contradicting itself, the work instigates distraction to encourage greater attention.

Crochet, and textiles in general, are tactile. A quilt is often given as a gift and are symbolic of care and community. Sterilised as an artwork, the quilt’s warmth and comfort is subsumed by the QR code’s utility. The focus of the work on physicality is reinforced by its labour-intensive method of creation. This absurd over investment in an instantly generated form challenges the socially ubiquitous need for immediacy, emphasising the material and physical as the most potent avenue of connection.

Ultimately, what do we invest, and what do we give up for instantaneous connection? What is lost and gained?