Consisting of a breathing mask, a life jacket, lungs and a kind of aquatic corset, Flottage provides a curious life support system for an absent person. Carolyn Menzies has collected seaweed and shaped it to her own body, producing a sculpture that appears as a second skin, abandoned, or hung up to dry, ready to be used again. Ephemeral, symbolic, and visually intriguing, Flottage draws the viewer into a narrative space of possibility and process. In Conceptual Sculptural Installation, a popular art form since the 1970s, the nature, symbolism and interrelationship of the objects are important parts of the message. Born in 1968 in Otaki, Menzies studied sculpture at the University of Canterbury. In her final year - 1991 - she was awarded both the Rose Overton and Rosemary Johnson Muller scholarships. She has exhibited in local and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand and currently lives in Melbourne.