“We are visitors on this earth. There is no controlling nature. All you may do is surrender.”

Artist Hannah Brontë’s new work features a series of portraits exhibited amongst native Australian flora outside Melbourne Town Hall.

The subject, Eilla Marie “a mother of two and powerful being moving into her womanhood”, is clothed in a suit covered in medicinal plants, seeds and shells collected on the country of the Yugambeh peoples. Divinely Protected is a wish for protection from the earth as it moves into a new chapter: where capitalism begins to fall and Mother Nature takes over.

“As the cooler winds sweep the sea surface temperatures of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, we see the female counterpart to El Niño (the boy) emerge, the earth purging and shifting its tectonic plates in synchronicity with the human shifts of power. As we watch the uprising of social justice come to the forefront we see the sea levels rising, the temperatures soaring and the birth of wet seasons across the Southern Hemisphere.”

Commissioned by Photo Australia

Presented in partnership with City of Melbourne

Supported by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund, an Australian Government initiative