For the past 15 years I have worked in the medium of forged steels,
predominantly on ornamental architectural commissions.
Working within a 1880s industrial blacksmithing workshop, at the Eveleigh Locomotive Rail yards in Redfern, Sydney, I have had the unusual opportunity of having some pretty serious equipment at my disposal. I utilize machinery that was associated in the past with the forging of parts for steam locomotives- furnaces, forges, power-hammers, guillotines, plate rollers, blacksmith’s swages and tongs.
My work has always exhibited sculptural qualities, but it wasn’t until I allowed myself to relinquish the practical ideal that all my work had to be functional that I’ve been able to have the freedom to make pieces of art on my own terms. Stylistically these works suit the current mood in Modernist architecture, reminiscent of the ‘mid-century modern’ aesthetic of the 1940s through to the 1970s.
Composing together irregular geometric forms creates a strong visual effect as the void spaces contrast with the solidity of the steel. By means of ‘forging down’ the components some areas are in silhouette, then seemingly stretch into a flattened surface. The surfaces acquire an earthy, textural quality during the forging down process. It is this sort of dimensional change that is so alluring about forged steel, it has its own language, symmetry and dynamism. Its strength allows the sculptures to be tall and slender.
This range of totem sculptures is an extension of a series I have been showing to 2005.
