Producing work for both indoor and outdoor
environments again requires knowledge about
handling the dif erent materials. It’s about joining
components and the role of glue is important,
so knowledge of glue technologies and other
attachment techniques are part of my process.
Fundamental to all that is my preference to
working with l at sheets of clay, i rmed through a
little drying, and joined in an angular relationship
as intersecting planes. In ceramics we call it slab-
built. It is a slight departure from the organic form
that ceramics often takes in the sculptural idiom. I
have a major thread of work at present in this mode,
landscape representations based on the Asian art of
Scholars Rocks. My exhibition with a painter entitled
Stone Samplers at Tweed Regional Gallery in the
summer of 2015 exclusively explored mountainous
forms using joined vertical slabs.
Recent times have seen a rise of outdoor
sculpture shows and obviously Sculpture by the Sea
i gures prominently; this is arguably the strongest
collection of sculpture assembled annually in the
country, suitably rivaled by McLelland in Victoria.
I was selected to participate once in the Sydney
show with a sculpture using steel rod – which was
a favourite medium of mine for several years, forms
akin to indigenous i sh traps.
Sculpture has become a popular form of art now
that it is so accessible and is frequently shown in
the public domain. The breaking down of the gallery
walls has produced a popular form of sculpture and
explains the wave of popularity that sculpture has
enjoyed in the last 20 years in Australia.
My current passionate project in collaboration with
colleagues here in Byron Shire is the Mullumbimby
Sculpture Walk. It will be a site of permanent and
temporary sculpture, representing sculptors of our
region mostly with site-specii c works. By the end
of this year we will have materialised the i rst major
piece having just this week acquired our matched
funding from Creative Partnerships Australia. It is
also supported by Byron Shire Council and most
importantly our local community and businesses.
Some time ago now I chose to make my ef orts
focused on the local region of the Northern Rivers. I
felt that so much good local work is never shown here
as it follows market dictates and heads out to the cities.
Most of all it was quite evident to me that there is so
much local talent and so little in the public domain
representing it. I wanted to contribute to the culture of
this region and support creating a more visible visual
culture. This led to the Mullum Sculpture Walk project.
Previously we had the East Coast Sculpture Show at
Ballina for 12 years ,thanks to Christopher Dean >>
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