Sera Waters

She is currently investigating the recurring ghosts of Australian settler colonialism through her PhD candidature at University of South Australia. In 2006 Waters studied embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework (UK) through the Ruth Tuck Scholarship, and since that time her practice has been characterised by darkly stitched meticulousness. Her black-works and handcrafted sculptures have been and exhibited across Australia and in Germany; most recently in solo exhibitions Dark Portals, at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia (2013), and Ghostscapes at Fontanelle Gallery, Adelaide (2014). 

Waters has written for journals including Art Monthly, Artlink, Un Magazine, Eyeline and craft + design enquiry, and was a founding presence with the Adelaide zine, Vitamin (2004-2010). She also regularly writes catalogue essays for artists. Her paper, ‘Repetitive Crafting: the shared aesthetic of time in Australian Contemporary Art’, was presented at the AAANZ conference (2010) and later published in craft + design enquiry (2012). Through both her writing and art she continues to develop her theories around the affective powers of repetitious acts.

2014-2018         PhD, School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia 
                            Doctoral title: Genealogical Ghostscapes: unsettling settler colonial home-making legacies in South Australia’.                                 Supervisor: Emeritus Professor Kay Lawrence. Co-supervisor: Dr Kathleen Connellan. 

2003-2006      Masters of Arts in Art History, Adelaide University 

1997-2000      Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours), SASA, University of SA