Australia Square

BARBARA CAMPBELL-ALLEN ‘Construct 1’ [Woodfired Paperclay 66 x 24 x 30]

Construct 1 reminds us of flight and captures the warmth of the sun as it embraces meandering rock formations. It has a distinctive surface quality and complexity that leaves us in awe.

Paper clay is any clay to which paper fibre has been added, there are advantages to using paper clay because of the highly sculptural forms that that can be accomplished due to its malleability and strength. The paper burns out in the kiln when the correct temperature is reached, leaving the clay body in tact.

Campbell-Allen utilizes the innate qualities of wood fired paper clay to such advantage that her subtlety and depth of expression is a sheer delight. She exploits to full effect the beauty of understated colour effects created due to the wood firing, achieving an almost florescent finish.

MEIKE DAVIS ‘The Other Pair’ [Fired Clay/Oxides 47 x 18 x 18]

Davis has used the robust and credible indium of two gossips that are animatedly in conversation. She has grasped, tongue-in-cheek, an eccentric externalization of circumstance. The Other Pair’s patination and surface texture is bronze-like.

Davis presents us with two hybrid creatures that are half human and half bird. In mythology creatures such as these occur in many ancient cultures. Beliefs regarding animal identity are widespread, from the Paleolithic period, the time of cave paintings and throughout the ages. However, these hybrid images were not necessarily considered physical representations but were instead often attempts to acquire the mental and spiritual attributes of both creatures.

In the same way Davis has taken the upper part of two long beaked birds that are absorbed in gabbling, squawking, gossipy conversation about The Other Pair. The lower half of the two figures are human and are of course female! Their plumage is on full show as they flap their wings to express their emotional state. In fact, Davis has successfully created the mentality and the spirit of a couple of Sheila’s having a good natter!

PIN HSUN HSIANG ‘Gold Stick’ [Aluminium/ Granite 60 x 25 x 25]

Gold Stick is mounted on a platform of black granite and is sculpted in black oxidised aluminium. Pin Hsun Hsiang captures all the concentration and singularity of thought as the hunched conductor puts all of his mental and physical energy into his area of special talent. The audience shares with him his utter intensity and is transported into other realms.

Conductors see their gesticulations as an important and necessary method of communicating musical ideas. The conductor’s baton becomes like a living thing, which conducts a kind of electricity to all the players in the orchestra.

Pin Hsun Hsiang refers to his subject’s baton as a Gold Stick. Pre-16th century it was reported that Greek “Pherekydes with his golden staff gave the signal, all the art-experienced men began in one and the same time” The wooden baton of the modern day conductor could also be considered as having a stick of gold when he manages to achieve greatness through the music his orchestra produces.

PETER LEWIS ‘Alice’s Party (3 pieces)’ [Stainless Steel Each 16 x 8 x 4]

In Lewis’s (not to be confused with Lewis Caroll), Alice’s Party has all characters beautifully crafted in stainless steel. Alice observes Tweedledum and Tweedledee intensely as they perform before her on a rostrum. Rabbit on the other hand, who also plays the part of the observer, has a slightly lopsided, quizzical expression.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee originally stumble across Alice as they lurk out of the shadows. They are identical in every way and even finish each other’s sentences. Alice greets them but states that she must be on her way. However, Tweedledum and Tweedledee want to play and suggest numerous games but when she declines she replies “Because I am curious”

White Rabbit who has pink eyes and on first encounter was heard to say “ Oh dear! Oh Dear! I shall be late” then took a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, and looked at it and then hurried on.

The whole sequence of events is a bit of nonsense that has captured our imaginations for generations. It continues to do so. This work is very precious and a heap of fun.

SALLIE PORTNOY ‘Ruby’s Fandango, Betty’s Bolero & Sadie’s Salsa (3 pieces)’ [Cast Lead Glass Crystal 25 x 18 x 18]

Portnoy is an authority on glasswork, which she uses as a vehicle to transport her imagination, which “ has always been in human nature, human form, human psychology, mysticism, ritual, and the mysteries of life”.

The Fandango, The Bolero and the Salsa are all dances that have Latin roots. We can imagine them performed to a background of strumming guitars and the click of castanets held aloft. Ruby, Betty and Sadie all dance in unison to an exciting rhythmic beat.

The deep red, aquamarine and pink of their upper bodies are so luscious they remind us of edible lumps of thick fruit jelly. All three dancers have thick folds of fluffy white-layered skirt serving a duel purpose. Their swirling volume also acts as support for their upper bodies as they capture the magic of Ruby’s Fandango, Betty’s Bolero & Sadie’s Salsa.

JAN SHAW ‘Pixel Tower’ [Wood 60 x 26 x 26]

There is an honesty in Pixel Tower’s assemblage which is captivating and straightforward yet also it contains a mesmerizingly, unpredictable quality.

A Pixel Tower is like a fortification in which you heap mounds of layers one on the other and is as tall as is achievable. For Shaw this has been interpreted by mounting wooden cubes in what seams like a random configuration, with a hollow half cylinder at the works base and at it’s top.

Shaw has painted her work with appealing colour. Each cube and half sphere is in a subtly textured, muted olive green mottled with patches of yellow. These shapes have been given extra definition by painting their edges with bright orange, which gives vitality and greater emphasis to the work’s linear quality.

Pixel Tower is a satisfying composition of silhouettes that captivate and keep you entertained exploring it’s myriad of profiles.

MORGAN SHIMELD ‘Escarpment’ [Corten Steel/ Mild steel/Polyurethane 120 x 100 x 100]

The structures Shimeld has manufactured are satiating and handsome, large and impressive. Their matte rust finish is both calming and refined.

Shimeld has welded corten mild steel in keeping with the eye of the perfectionist. He gives similar appropriate consideration to all the linear aspects that can be found in demarcated minimalist architecture.

Escarpment describes a deep sloping cliff that through erosion splits into two different comparatively level elevations. Two thick wedges of hollow, sharply defined steel nudge up against and into each other.

Escarpment is an immensely satisfying work.

SALLY ZYLBERBERG ‘Royal Night In’ [Smalti/Glass 60 x 40 x 42]

Royal Penguins are so-called Royal because of the yellow crest on their heads. Zylberberg’s penguin has the perfect Royal crown which is golden and wispy, much more stylish and arty than Koh-i-Noor diamonds!

Royal penguin’s beaks also characterize them. Royal night in’s beak is bright red and shiny, quite something with which to give an affectionate peck!

Zylberberg’s penguin is portly and definately regal. He looks like he might just have had a satisying super of fish and squid. He wears a fabulous dressing gown and comfy slippers of glittering smalti glass mosaics. There is a degree of Liberace-style self indulgence in his flashy way. He is now perfectly prepared for a Royal night in.

Of course, Royal night in is pure fun and is unrestrained gratification of whim. It is an entertaining work, beautifully executed, that is garanteed to make you smile.