CONTEMPORARY
SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
Contemporary artists or sculptors:
• use traditional sculptural techniques of
carving, casting and constructing to create
their three-dimensional objects
• challenge the idea of the permanent,
precious art object.
INSTALLATIONS
• An installation is a method of display
whereby objects are arranged for a
particular space.
• One of the newer installation methods is the
transient sculptural form.
• Transient sculptural forms must be
documented because they do not last.
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
Callum Morton’s Habitat depicts
the following characteristics:
• a sculptural installation
resembling a scaled-down
architectural model
• added lights and sound,
suggesting there are people
within it
• reality versus illusion
• Postmodern aspects in its
questioning of our values and
the way we live
• a Postmodern appropriation of
a modernist building.
Callum Morton, Habitat 2003
Wood, acrylic paint, aluminium, sheet magnets, lights, sound
74 x 660 x 130 cm
Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
Ricky Swallow’s sculpture Killing
Time portrays the following
characteristics:
• a traditional carving technique in
wood
• the illusion of reality
• themes of memory and time
passing
• reference to past artworks and
the traditional still-life subject.
In Swallow’s other works, there is
reference to mass contemporary
culture (e.g. the computer, Star
Wars).
Ricky Swallow, Killing Time 2003-4
Laminated jelutong, maple
108 x 184 x 118 cm (irregular)
Art Gallery of New South Wales
© Ricky Swallow and Darren Knight Gallery
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
Hossein Valamanesh’s Untitled
(1999), shows the following
characteristics:
•
an example of the use of found
objects in installations
•
the suggestion of spirituality and
the artist’s cultural background
•
symbolism in the use of the
candle and the branch
•
the depiction of nature and selfidentity as two concerns in the
artist’s works.
Hossein Valamanesh, Untitled 1999
Lavender bush, oil burner
80 x 58 x 82 cm
Courtesy the artist and Sherman Galleries, Sydney
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
Mona Hatoum’s Untitled
(Wheelchair) portrays the
following aspects:
• the altering of the purpose of the
objects by the artist to suggest
meaning
• using the objects as symbols of
hostility, danger, oppression and
anger
• linking the work to the artist’s own
experience of displacement from
Lebanon.
Mona Hatoum, Untitled (Wheelchair) 1998
Stainless steel and rubber
97 x 59 x 84 cm
© The artist. Photographer: Edward Woodman
Courtesy Jay Jopling/White Cube (London)
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE/INSTALLATIONS
In Tim Silver’s Untitled (adrift), the
following aspects are portrayed:
• the artwork is no longer a
permanent, precious object
• documentation of the artwork
becomes essential
• the objects are transient — they
melt, decay, are used up and
transform their state
• the artwork links to the
changing nature of our life and
consumerism.
Tim Silver, Untitled (adrift) 2004
Archival ink on archival watercolour paper
47 x 65 cm, Image 7/10
Courtesy the artist and GRANTPIRRIE