Rhizome - Aerial Landscape 01 Ed. 2 of 25

Though the word rhizome is derived from a Greek word meaning “to take root”, the rhizome is not about the common tree structure whose branches have all grown from a single trunk.

Rhizome subverts such traditional hierarchies.

Rhizome offers liberation from these structures of power and dominance.

Rhizome has no beginning, no centre and no end.

Rhizome can be entered from any point, and all points are connected.

When injured or broken at one site, rhizome simply forms a new connection that emerges elsewhere.

Rhizome is not about what is or what was, but about what might be.

To quote Deleuze and Guattari: “The surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.”

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M. Sunflower is an Aboriginal artist with disabilities. A descendant of the Warmuli people of the Darug Nation, Lebanese post-war migrants, Chinese gold rush miners and UK convicts, M. Sunflower embodies the diverse ancestral legacy of Australia’s painful and complex colonial past. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photomedia) from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, and in 2016 was an inaugural recipient in the Emerge Program, an engagement project between the Art Gallery of NSW and Front Up, a Western Sydney based arts and culture program and hub, founded by Ability Options. She is currently Co-Director at Firstdraft on the 2021-22 Board of Directors, and 2021 projects include: a solo photographic exhibition in June 2021 as part of Artspace Ideas Platform, a Panel Talk for Arts Activated 2021, and exhibition works for Fairfield Museum and Gallery, Off The Wall Gallery, and Accessible Arts. She was a finalist in the Bluethumb Art Prize 2021.

Her interdisciplinary practice encompasses photography, video, multimedia and installation, which she deploys to bring visibility to issues and experiences related to identity, trauma and disability. A strong believer in art as activism, she is founder and curating contributor of Off The Wall Gallery, Sydney, an outdoor and online exhibiting initiative centred on creating opportunities for marginalised artists, including those living with physical and mental disability. She is a strong advocate for human rights and works actively to create opportunities and support for marginalised peoples of all identities.