Sia Cox, Portal I: Bombala track birthday, fabric, sequins, stuffing and cardboard, 36 x 20 x 10 cm, 2020 (shop)
Sia Cox, Portal II: Midweek coals at dusk, fabric, beads, stuffing and cardboard, 36 x 20 x 10 cm, 2020 (shop)
Sia Cox, Portal III: The first time you fell asleep in my lap by the fire, fabric, stuffing and cardboard, 36 x 20 x 10 cm, 2020 (shop)
Sia Cox, Portal IV: Jump Rock, fabric, beads, stuffing and cardboard, 60 x 57 x 10 cm, 2020 (shop)
A little way up the coast from Newcastle is a spa-sized rock pool that seems impossibly high to be filled with so much fresh water. Older kids ritually express their bravery by jumping off into the ocean below while younger ones shelter from the unrelenting onshore winds in the warm lusciously seaweed-lined pool.
In the shape of the rock pool I see a baby’s head crowning in a birthing vagina and think of the rites of passage of our children, continuously moving from one state to another.
Sia Cox, Olive tree: Andriana, fabric and stuffing, 26 x 29 x 5 cm, 2021 (shop)
My mother’s great grandmother Andriana and other Kytherian women birthed their babies in the fields of their island when they found themselves too far from home. This small olive tree casts dense shade offering privacy and protection my ancestors would have been drawn to as they laboured outdoors.
Sia Cox, Palm tree: Anastasia, fabric and stuffing, 78 x 60 x 10 cm, 2021 (shop)
The palm tree stood outside the window as I birthed our son, its fronds splayed in joyful embrace as it busted out flowers and berries, swarmed by bees under a full moon.
Sia Cox, Fig tree: Carolyn, fabric, stuffing and cardboard, 1700 x 60 x 10 cm, 2021 (shop)
My mother stands under the Morton bay fig tree that shades her house where she surrendered to nature to birth me and my four sisters.
Photo: Adrian Moulos, 2021