“Creativity is a way of thinking and it influences everything you do”
Tom Bass (1916 - 2010), Australian Sculptor
Talking Practice: Carol Lehrer Crawford
“My creative process is fluid and organic. If I am carving stone, it starts with the choice of the raw stone and from there I simplify and if it’s too ‘simple’ I complicate. It’s a very hard thing to articulate as my carving process is more like an inner conversation, between me and the stone where we both speak to each other, listen, and adjust as required…”
The Learning Curve: Simon Harris, finalist Dobell Drawing Prize #23
“I had an epiphany last year when I suddenly realised that I was creating stone sculptures in my drawings... and that I really should be exploring real sculpture... with real stone. It’s already given me an invaluable insight into the genius of past sculptors from primitive ‘stone age’ carvers to the renaissance…”
Spotlight On: Laurence Edwards
Recently, we've heard that a number of people had the opportunity to get themselves out to Orange to see the just closed exhibition Laurence Edwards: A Gathering of Uncertainties, which showed at the Orange Regional Gallery.
Be Inspired: Materials Under the Microscope – Sisal
So what is sisal, where does it come from, and why is it used in sculpture? Answering this question took me to the most unlikely of places: the Oxford Botanic Gardens…
Be Inspired: Materials Under the Microscope - Marble
In the fourth edition of our series on sculptural materials, William takes us on a written journey to the Oxford University Natural History Museum – and in particular, to the geology and sculptural exhibits…
Be Inspired: Materials Under the Microscope - Plaster
This week we continue our exploration of sculptural materials, but move away from stone, to consider a common casting material: plaster.
A Piece of History: Tom Bass’ Broadway Studio (Part 3)
“It was always with a feeling of excitement that I would turn off the Broadway, busy with traffic, into a small laneway leading to the door of the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio. There was a repair shop for fridges and whitegoods on the ground floor and I seem to remember perhaps a jeweller or a goldsmith in the building as well…”
A Piece of History: Tom Bass’ Broadway Studio (Part 2)
“Here in this Studio I could make concrete my daydreams and hold my own against the roar and thunder of the city and the sadness and loss I was experiencing at that time. Tom’s teaching looked seriously at free play of imagination, contemplation and dreaming. There was no radio or noise apart from the soft sounds of students at work in this boundless silence, three floors up off Broadway…”
Talking Practice: Paul Trefry
“I haven’t studied sculpture, I had studied Graphic Design at Randwick TAFE, my sculpting has come from being self-taught, making lots of mistakes and learning by them, observation is the best skill any hyperrealist sculptor can have…”
A Piece of History: Tom Bass’ Broadway Studio (Part 1)
“As you stepped into the light-filled entry way, you climbed up the square timber stairwell to the top floor and entered another world! The tall windows lined the walls and streamed dust-light into the room, while the window pane shadows moved across the floor throughout the day…”
Spotlight On: Yayoi Kusama
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is responsible for some of the most iconic works of sculpture in the world. Throughout Kusama’s prolific career her favourite motifs of pumpkins, polka dots and nets formed of infinitely repeating loops have taken the shape of room-filling installations, performance pieces, painting, poetry and large and small sculpture.
Take a Look: Entries Open for the Tom Bass Prize
The Tom Bass Prize for Figurative sculpture was initiated to mark the 100th Birthday of Tom Bass AM (1916 – 2010), and is an acknowledgement of the influence Bass has had as one of Australia’s pre-eminent sculptors and educators.
Be Inspired: Materials Under the Microscope – Limestone
Limestone is a fascinating material with many uses in the world of the arts as well as in lots of industrial, agricultural and construction areas…
The Learning Curve: Simran Dahiya
“I first fell in love with sculpting when I visited Musée Rodin in Paris in 2019. I was mesmerised by the manipulation of form and material to capture the intricacies of human life and emotion…”
Spotlight on: Christian Boltanski
Known for work accumulating mass amounts of abandoned clothes, old photographs and other personal detritus, French artist Christian Boltanski’s work conversed with death and drew on themes of chance, loss and memory…
Be Inspired: Materials Under the Microscope - Soapstone
Unlike other forms of rock, soapstone can be found all over the world, and can be mined either industrially or by hand. It has a long history, and was carved by Indigenous peoples all over the world, to make all sorts of things…
Spotlight On: Louise Bourgeois
“I need to make things. The physical interaction with the medium has a curative effect. I need the physical acting out. I need to have these objects exist in relation to my body...”
Talking Practice: In Conversation with Usama Alnassar, part 2
“Restrictions and fears provided a fertile soil for me to meditate on our fragile existence and I have created several sculptures and painting to express that. But for the same reason I couldn’t travel to my students and they couldn’t come to my studio especially during the last two European winters…”
Spotlight On: Constantin Brancusi
“What my work is aiming at is, above all, realism. I pursue the inner, hidden reality, the very essence of objects in their own intrinsic fundamental nature; this is my only deep preoccupation…”
Take a Look: Monika Scarrabelotti’s exhibition ‘The State of Things’
“At the beginning of 2020 I started to develop a new body of work considering eco-anxiety. However, emerging from a smoke-choked, apocalyptic summer and tumbling straight into the unpredictability of the global pandemic, what evolved was The State of Things: an amalgamation of the chaos that 2020 had to offer…”