A thousand different angles

Simon Lawrie

The exhibition A thousand different angles foregrounds the legacy of Inge King AM (1915–2016) and Norma Redpath OBE (1928–2013), two central figures of Australian modernist sculpture with significant works in McClelland’s outdoor collection. In conjunction, eleven contemporary artists are showcased who extend conceptual and aesthetic concerns in King and Redpath’s practice, and who expand the legacies of modernism in a contemporary spatial context: Fiona Abicare, Samara Adamson-Pinczewski, Marion Borgelt, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Natasha Johns-Messenger, Sanné Mestrom, Noriko Nakamura, Nabilah Nordin, Louise Paramor, Kerrie Poliness, and Meredith Turnbull.

Curated by Lisa Byrne and Simon Lawrie, this exhibition is titled after Inge King’s observation that ‘sculpture is drawing from a thousand different angles’ and explores the dynamic spatial properties of sculpture in relation to both environmental context and the contingent experience of the viewer. Set across both McClelland’s indoor galleries and outdoor sculpture park, it includes works of diverse scale from small maquettes to monumental public sculpture in a bushland environment.

Works by King and Redpath from the 1980s infer an expansive experiential space, albeit one that is contained within discrete sculptural objects. For both artists, the form of the maquette is metonymic of larger scale works in public contexts and establishes relations to the broader urban or natural environment. While Redpath sought to integrate her sculptures, such as Paesaggio Cariatyde 1980–85 and Desert Arch 1964 with the surrounding landscape, King often pitted her angular black steel constructions, such as Jabaroo 1984–85 or Island Sculpture 1991, against the Australian bushland. While industrial materials and fabrication processes inform these artists’ work and were central to King’s practice in particular, the manipulation of form, and of experience, remains direct. King’s welding techniques often introduce organic expression to the dynamic yet comparatively rigid geometry of her sculptures, and Redpath’s conspicuous traces of plying, kneading and gouging a sculptural form bring a similar manual trace to her works in bronze and clay.

Contemporary artists extend these concerns with context and experience using varied media, disciplinary frameworks, and artistic approaches. The languages of interior design, domestic and retail spaces pervade Fiona Abicare’s sculptures and Meredith Turnbull’s modular installation. Natasha Johns-Messenger and Consuelo Cavaniglia present quasi-architectural installations which foreground spatial subjectivity and processes of perception, while the fragmented forms and vibrant colour palettes of Samara Adamson-Pinczewski’s 3-D printed sculptures similarly activate and complicate the viewer’s comprehension. Tactile bodily experience and materially guided process define the work of Noriko Nakamura, Sanné Mestrom and Nabilah Nordin. Cosmological patterns and natural cycles feature in the living sculpture of Marion Borgelt. Drawing on the potential of industrial plastics, Louise Paramor’s sculptures, including the monumental Panorama Station 2010 on Peninsula Link freeway near McClelland, offer a pop sensibility at architectural scale. An expanded conception of painting and sculpture feature in Kerrie Poliness’s video work, through the openended journey of the art object itself.

In the context of the limitations on movement and contact brought about by COVID-19, where digital experience has often eclipsed physical interaction, this exhibition attempts to re-ground us through the direct experience of objects in space, while offering diverse perspectives and approaches to contemporary spatial practice.