recent projects

Having a lovely time going nowhere (2010)

Wood, copper and bronze
ArtsCape – Byron Bay, July 2010

After a few years of working almost exclusively in metals, this work marks a return to a material I used to love – wood. In the past I’ve made very little sculpture in wood, using it more for functional objects and furniture. For this work I’ve employed the wood differently, appropriating the forms of traditional wooden boats as part of the sculpture. I’ve long been fascinated by the processes of traditional wooden boat building, and the resultant forms, and having really only dabbled around the edges of these mysteries up until now, this work enabled me to really jump in and immerse myself.

The work started out with thinking about our relationship with the very surface of the earth and how to bring it to the fore – and embedding a boat form into that very surface gave me a tool to achieve that. The relationship between the embedded boat and the boat floating upside down in the trees is part of thinking about water and where it is, where it’s coming from, where it’s going.  Despite the subject matter, I intended it as a light hearted work, something that people could play with – hence the ability of people to climb into the boat and hang out in there, laying back and looking up through the banksia leaves at that blue bay sky – Having a lovely time going nowhere. The name of the work and the atmosphere it’s intended to create are metaphors for times in all our lives – when direction and progress elude us but a lovely time may still be possible.

Notwithstanding the conceptual approach, the process of making the boats took over a little. There are a few skills that have to be mastered in order to get a result, along with a number of very repetitive processes. It’s a lovely way to create a form though, and if I hadn’t been in such a rush to get it done I’d say I enjoyed pretty much all of it. As it was, it was a it of a blinding sprint to the finish line and I only just made it along with some help from a few friends – thank you Geoff, Steve, Claus, Serg, Sam.