Living Between Worlds
As a child, I—Pamela Rataj—believed everyone moved between two worlds: the private world of home and the world outside. Each space had its own language and way of being. Later, I realised this “private” language was my native tongue, German. I also understood that we had physically changed places.
This early experience revealed to me the shifting value of language and behaviour. Displacement—and the internalisation of different cultural and linguistic contexts—defines much of contemporary life. Each crossing of borders holds potential: for co-existence, and for transformation.
A Dual Existence
These hybrid identities connect our time with mythological traditions. Across cultures, humans have long tried to unify opposites—light and dark, known and unknown, body and spirit. This pursuit continues today, within both personal and collective experiences.
Interstices of Content explores this duality and how it echoes internally, shaped by physical dislocation and psychological shifts.
Investigating Material and Meaning
My work focuses on the relationship between opposites: intellect and intuition, absence and presence, the tangible and intangible. I explore this through materials, their processes, and how they resonate historically.
I use both found and chosen materials. Found objects carry past meanings, while selected materials reflect the intention behind each piece.
The Weight of Time
For example, I use coal sourced from Eastern Victoria. These deposits are about 1.6 million years old. Sometimes they wash ashore, carried by the tide. To me, they suggest a quiet overlap between past and present—and hint at transformation, decay, and return.
Holding on to Depth
Today, we live in a constant “now,” surrounded by rapid change and surface-level immediacy. My work resists this. It asks viewers to slow down, to recognise the deeper histories that shape us all.
By exploring materiality and process, I aim to preserve a connection to these longer timelines. We are not only formed by our individual lives, but also by histories that lie beneath them—waiting to be remembered.
