Rachel Burke

My work is inspired by a love for naive craft materials and transforming the mundane into the magical.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Artist

Artist Bio

Rachel Burke is a practicing multidisciplinary artist, designer, and author based in Brisbane, Australia.

Known for her vibrant, tactile wearable artworks and iconic tinsel creations, her work is inspired by a love for naive craft materials and transforming the mundane into the magical.

Rachel has exhibited her work in gallery spaces across Australia, including The Museum of Brisbane, Saint Cloche Gallery, Hamer Hall, The Australian Centre of the Moving Image, Enough Space, GAFFA, and the Redlands Art Gallery.

She has also published three books with Hardie Grant. Craft Roach, Be Dazzling, and Daphne & Daisy.

Rachel loves working with clients and collaborating with brands to create products, installations, and organic content!

She has worked on creative collaborations with numerous global brands including Disney, ASOS, LEGO, Barbie, Audible, Airbnb, Nikon, Visa, West Elm, Pottery Barn, Frankie Magazine, Sephora, Mecca, My Little Pony, and many more.

Her work has also been acquired by notable performers and artists Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, Drew Barrymore, Alisha Gaddis (Grammys), Lauren Conrad, Kesha, Mindy Kaling, Delta Goodrem, and even Beyonce’s children.

Artist Statement

Growing up in the southern US, I quickly learned there was a certain expectation of how to “properly” be a woman: now, I challenge what that looks like, using performed femininity as a tool to reveal not only gender disparities but also illuminate the relentless critique and politicization of the female body. Instead of hiding or denying femme aesthetics and female sexuality, my pieces embrace, highlight, and empower them, while acknowledging all the awkwardness, humor, and theatricality they entail.

My work is a balancing act between sensual forms and playful materials. By augmenting erotic, sensual armatures with glistening rhinestones, feathery pom-poms, and candy-colored fabrics, I assign new meanings and connotations to the forms. Using primarily ceramics and fabric, I create sculptures that evoke pieces of oversized jewelry, shoes, and other fashion and domestic items.

I begin a piece by sculpting a high-fired ceramic component, painting it, and carefully studying the surface one by one with tiny rhinestones. From here, I will add textile elements as well as beauty supplies materials like hair scrunchies and nail polish.

The resulting pieces are flirtatious, attention-seeking, and deceptively superficial. Toying with their own actualities and potential, they can speak—glittery and powerful—to politics in their own voice: excessive, unabashedly hyper-feminine, and most importantly, pink.