Colour pencil on found paper, steel shelf
120 x 180 x 7 cm

A page from an incidental biography (2024–25) is a series of drawings on recycled envelopes sent to the artist from various superannuation companies, employers and cultural organisations. Collected because they were saved in tax documentation, they are a material trace of living when employed in precarious labour. The drawings reflect Raquel’s movements over a 25-year period between rental properties, lovers and parents’ homes to her most recent address, a place she owns in Canberra. While they form a kind of biography her life, they are emblematic of the ways that creatives continue to live in and move between other people’s houses. Some of the texts on the drawings refers back to works made early in Raquel’s practice when she was focussing on and alternative forms of living and housing, such as Rental beige (2000) and I used to live here (2001). The use of everyday materials reflects Raquel’s ongoing concern of reflecting the world through a studio practice, her commitment to leaving a light ecological footprint.

Images: David Patterson