ABOUT

Carolyn Cardinet is a French-Australian interdisciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne, working across sculpture, installation and wearable art. Her practice transforms discarded materials into tactile, immersive forms that examine hyper-consumerism, pollution and the environmental afterlife of contemporary consumption.

Working with found plastics, optical lenses, bubble wrap, packaging and salvaged textiles, Carolyn reimagines waste not as an endpoint, but as a material witness to excess, convenience and ecological neglect. Marine and tidal forms often recur in her suspended sculptural works, which move between seduction and unease. Through weaving, accumulation, assemblage and repetition, she gives fragile and often overlooked materials a new physical presence, allowing them to speak to both beauty and damage, attraction and warning.

Originally trained in graphic design in Paris, Cardinet later worked in haute couture before relocating to Australia. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT University. Her background in fashion continues to inform her sensitivity to structure, texture, adornment and form, while weaving and repetition remain central to her expanded sculptural language.

A turning point came in 2010 after witnessing coastal degradation in Australia, an experience that shifted her practice toward environmental advocacy and a deeper engagement with place, waste and responsibility. Since then, Cardinet has undertaken artist residencies in Australia and internationally, using art as a means of opening dialogue around climate change and the overconsumption embedded in convenience culture.

Her commitment to sustainability has been further shaped by climate and leadership training, including the Climate Reality Leadership program with Al Gore in Brisbane, as well as sustainability leadership programs with the City of Port Phillip and the City of Yarra.

Cardinet’s practice is driven by the belief that waste carries memory: of use, desire, convenience, damage and denial. By transforming discarded materials into immersive forms, she reframes our relationship to a world increasingly shaped by plastic toxicity and excess.

Carolyn Cardinet has presented sculptural installations, wearable works and collaborative projects across galleries, festivals and artist-led spaces throughout Victoria and interstate. Her recent exhibitions and presentations include OH Buoy at Flinders Fringe Festival, Tidal Signal at And Gallery, Sorrento, Shared Grounds at Carlisle Street Art Space, St Kilda, and projects with Satellite Projects, Glen Eira City Council Gallery and as an invited guest artist of the inaugural RAGE exhibition in Euroa. Her work has also been shown through the Melbourne Fashion Festival, Ocean Lovers Festival in Sydney, Sustainable Living Festival, Birrarung River Festival and Zero Waste Festival, reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of her practice across sculpture, environmental art and fashion.

Carolyns’ work has been recognised through a number of sculpture and art prizes: a 4 time finalist in the Yering Sculpture Prize, twice in the Burrinja Climate Biennale and the North Sydney Art Prize. Her suspended works were at the inaugural Sorrento Art Prize, The Wangaratta Contemporary textile Award, the Footscray Art Prize. Collaborative video installation work with artist Gabrielle Leah New were presented at LOOP (Hobart), Flinders Fringe Festival, West Projection festival and the Alliance Française. Earlier works made from single-use plastics and wearable forms were also recognised as finalists in several art prizes, affirming the strength of her material-led environmental practice.

She has undertaken successfully 16 artist residencies in Australia including Testing Grounds, NRCG, Biennale of Australian Art, Australian Tapestry Workshop, CAW Art & Science and internationally in Washington, Can Serrat Spain and Venice Italy, extending her engagement with audiences through exhibition-making, environmental dialogue and material experimentation.