‘This exhibition focuses on my recent figurative sculpture and comprises a series of portraits of a single model. The works are intimate and personal.
The repeated figure serves as a scaffold for a range of concerns – scientific, psychological, biographical, auto-biographical. At least that’s how each piece begins… It’s sometimes easy to forget that an art-object doesn’t manifest fully-formed on the gallery floor. The reality (particularly for a sculpture) couldn’t be more different. Each work is the result of an elaborate sequence of activities: conception, design, practical consideration (potential risk to small children, ability to fit through the studio door etc), fabrication, re-appraisal, adjustment… It is most definitely a process – and each completed sculpture represents the sum of hundreds of decisions made along the way. The result is always transformed by the journey and if you’re lucky, the piece turns out not to be a consuming folly, but an artwork that is more than just an illustration of the original idea. The sculptures in this show are the survivors.
Sincere thanks for their many kindnesses to the teams at Fundere Fine Art Foundry, Peninsula Recycled Timber and Australian Galleries and to the Barker Charitable Foundation.’ – Gary Rance, 2023
