PETER TILLEY - INTERVIEW

from ARTS ZINE MAY 2023

BARBARA NANSHE

As a teenager in 1961 I enrolled at the Art School in Prahran, Victoria. At that time, I indulged in the lifestyle, but was much too young and totally unprepared for the academic challenge, I only lasted one year. I have often regretted this outcome. Somewhat disillusioned, I joined the RAAF, becoming an Airframe Fitter, but I always carried the desire to pursue a career in the arts. Some ten or so years later I became friends with sculptor Peter Gelencser, Peter was lecturing at the University in Penang, Malaysia, while I was stationed at RAAF Base Butterworth, his encouragement was what I needed to return to study after leaving the RAAF in 1978.

I studied Ceramics (1973-75) and then recieved a Certificate of Art (1978-79) from Newcastle School of Art and Design. After achieving a Master of Philosophy (Fine Art) at the University of Newcastle (2008-10), I was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Fine Art) (2015-18) at the same institution.

My early exhibitions were with Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle. I exhibited with Brenda May from 1989 and my relationship with the Gallery, May Space, continued until the gallery closed in March 2022. Being represented by a commercial gallery has the obvious benefits of exposure to a wider audience, regular exhibitions and sales. Since the closure of May Space, I am no longer represented by a commercial gallery, nor do I wish to be at this time in my life. Not being committed to a yearly solo exhibition, has been very liberating, there is now a freedom and more time and scope to consider each new work, plus free rein to choose and prepare for the sculpture exhibitions that I would like to participate in.

My early sculptural practice included ritualised ceramic vessels and framed arrays of found objects. Later, small to human scale figurative sculptures occupied my practice for some time, they may be carved timber, small bronzes, larger cast resin or cast iron and Corten steel pieces. The other constant in my practice is wall mounted, mixed media works of found objects, often as multiples located within grids. Still-life tableau, constructed from a small collection of disparate objects is another favourite way of my art-making. Very few of my 3D pieces have been larger than human scale. Working in small studio spaces has, to a large extent, determined the size of works I have made, plus I have grown accustomed to, and am comfortable working with objects from very small up to life-sized. These different conceptual approaches to making sculpture have formed the major part of more than 35 solo and 90 group exhibitions I have participated in during forty years of exhibiting. Included are numerous Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe since 2004, SxS, Aarhus, Denmark 2009 and 2011. Also, when selected, Sculpture in the Vineyards, Wollombi, Sculpture Bermagui, Sculpture on the Farm, Dungog, Sculpture in the Garden, Mudgee.

Until recently I had always worked in rather small studio spaces where I lived, having easy access allows one to work in a less structured way, by that I mean at any time of day. This can have considerable advantages, especially with deadlines looming. The other side to that is one can always find domestic tasks that need doing as a means of avoidance when conceptual difficulties arise with one’s studio practice. As a result of downsizing to a smaller house, I have rented studio space at The Creator Incubator, Hamilton North, a creative home to a diverse group of 38 artists and makers. Working in a creative environment with other artists was a first for me. After settling in to a working routine, I began to enjoy the camaraderie and energy TCI offers. Also, there are visitors to the complex to interact with, if they are interested in what you are doing, given your studio space and works are somewhat visible.

The incorporation of the figure as a principal element is something I always return to, due to an ongoing interest in the figure and the space it inhabits. I find it a most effective way of portraying what it is to be human and the future of human destiny. My sculpted figures are not meant to be academic models, they are neither abstract nor expressionist, they avoid personal details, but they do stem, as does all of my work, from an example of the human condition. The work may not appear to relate to any direct personal experience; yet at the same time it may have some sense of the familiar. Neither are the figures self-portraits, although they can be somewhat autobiographical in that my life experience influences the work I make. I prefer to see them as representative of the commonality of humanity in a wider sense. I believe the simplified form of the figure should remain anonymous and elemental, a neutral male version of an ordinary existence, a form that is appropriate for my works.

Part of the reasoning behind my figurative work is that I consider a recognizable human form occupies an important place in contemporary sculpture as a symbol of our societies, our histories, and what it means to be human. My figures are not especially demonstrative by way of expressive gestures; the attitudes are modified by a subtle change in posture. This unembellished form of the figure capable of conveying a complex meaning is a convention that I have employed since studying the sculpture and symbolism that is associated with Ancient Egyptian Funerary Culture.

In the framed wall works, the objects I most frequently incorporate can range from common everyday objects to unusual items such as bird bone, coal and cemetery relics. I do prefer to collect unusual objects as long as I believe that, placed into a work, they add something essential to the work as a whole. The meanings normally attributed to the everyday icons would be fairly obvious when situated within their usual context. However, when objects are combined in large numbers, juxtaposed in unusual or unexpected ways, new patterns of meaning can then occur. Large numbers or differing types of materials, colours and shapes can imply new dialogues between one object and the next as well as between those objects and the viewer.

Working on a group of works as a series has always been an operative method I have favoured, most likely because of the obligation to produce a new body of work each year for my solo exhibition. It would entail following a thematic connection through the repetition of a formal motif, a range of perspectives around a given idea. Ideas that are all to do with a vision of the world and where I fit into it at that point in time. In the series of framed works that consist of found objects, time may be necessary to acquire a sufficient quantity of items to work with, some of the more unusual pieces can take many years to source, consequently, these works would occur at irregular intervals.

The natural properties of the range of materials that I use to carve or assemble in my sculptures are often just as important symbolically as the form and colour of those materials. For example, lead, which appears in many of my works and is regarded for the evocative soft, dull, blue-grey patina, (which is difficult to control) but those qualities activate and add depth to the surface. Lead has associations with alchemy, coffins, radiation shielding and bullets, to cite a few. I like the natural qualities of a rust patina on steel and cast iron, which, for me has an unexpected connectedness with the Australian landscape. The warm, rich colours of timber, especially old timbers which have a patina from age, too, have a connectedness with nature. Apart from the benefit to the environment by using recycled materials, the material’s previous life implies a stored history. Another favourite material I carve is graphite, (formerly electrodes from steel making furnaces) the crystalline surface of graphite when burnished, is sublime, varying from degrees of silver grey to carbon black, and when highly polished the surface has great depth, it is as though you can see below the surface. The surface can be highly reflective or matte as the granular structure interacts with the direction of the light source and your viewpoint.

I try to achieve a simplicity that is intuitively accepted, yet capable of complex layers of meaning. My inspiration stems from a range of influences, mainly, Egyptian funerary culture, the figure and it’s cast shadow, the destructive influence of the coal industry, and a concern for conservation which underpins everything. My sculptures are not meant to be provocative, they are meant to engage, and ideally, they should imply an experience of a presence in the real world. I aim for the sculpture to be somewhat meditative, and the composition as a whole to impart a reflective stillness, and I would be happy if that may induce a viewer to contemplate and comprehend.