Freya Pitt Bio

 Freya Pitt (b1986)

Growing up surrounded by art, social theory and the isthmuses of South-Western Australia, the path to art school was easy to find for Freya, and she graduated with a textiles major from Edith Cowan University in Perth, where she discovered a continuing obsession for 3D crochet installation. This landed her in exhibitions and the City of Melville's Textiles Collection.

On picking up a scalpel, she became enthralled by paper-cut, silhouette and shadow. Buying a few overhead projectors and exhibiting her detailed paper-cut and shadow installations around Perth and then Melbourne, Freya continued exploring the relationship between humans and their environments.

In 2009, moving to Melbourne, movement caught her eye and narrative grabbed hold of her mind. Working with the group Stories From the Ground, she devised two shows of shadow puppetry and manipulation, performing at various venues around Melbourne. Meanwhile, closeted in her room, she taught herself animation, and, with her brother Raku, formed inter-arts company the pianoBoat project.

Creating other worlds of whimsy and wonder through illumination and shadow, this project uses the attraction of the spectacle to engage viewers. From the allure of hand shadows by firelight to detailed digital projections, the range of mediums are a combination of new and old technologies.

At 24, Freya now has more projectors than she ever dreamed of as a kid, and a serious shadow obsession.