Although there is an underlying conceptual dimension to Fabia's work, the focus is always human beings.Her jokier work pokes gentle fun at the way human beings conduct themselves and uses birds (a pair of peacocks, an ibis and a cockatoo among others) to do so. Her more serious work explores darker, more extreme aspects of human experience.Her knowledge of human anatomy feeds into her sculpture. Her pieces are constructed from the inside out, following the underlying framework of the human form, and then built up layer by layer.
Figures
The figures Fabia makes seek to give form to the some of the more extreme points of human experience and often play on the tension between apparent solidity and lack of substance. They are usually monochrome and are made from a range of reused materials including old umbrella parts, old baskets, fabric, foam and wire.
Heads
Based on a fictional character called Fish Lamb in Tim Winton’s novel Cloudstreet, Fabia's ongoing series of over life-size portrait heads uses structural disintegration to explore a loss of completeness and identity. The first is made entirely from reused plastic milk bottles, cut into strips and glued together layer by layer. The second also incorporates a variety of different kinds of plastic and assortment of types of mesh and netting.
Birds and other creatures
These range from jokey satirical birds which generally use colour and deliberately highlight the contrast between proud, gaudy appearance and flimsy fabric to some rather more sinister creatures. They are made from a variety of reused materials, including broken umbrella parts, packaging tape, old shower curtains, bits of fan, windscreen wipers and other odds and ends.