Photo Diary - The Nature of Things

Words and Images by Jason Waterhouse

So lately in my sculpture practice I have found myself being drawn to nature and organic materials as a starting point.  I need to man up and get back into cars.

This photo diary is an ode to sticks.

Larry Parkinson, "earthly delights (detail)

Jason Waterhouse "Tell it to the trees" & Proof Sunglasses

Bridgit Bodenham

Lucy James "It gets you down and there is no time" (Detail)

Jennyfer Stratman "And the flowers, they came up wild" (Detail)

Cavaletti Dress

Stefan Gevers "Field of Joy" (detail)

Darcy Bella Arnold "Galahs" (detail)

Amelie Scalercio "Plant Life 1" (detail)

Boskke upside down planters

Qually season shakers

Sheridan Jones "flora" (detail)

Brooke Wolsley "Bush Pride" (detail)

Martin Hodge "Tower of two wings and flowers" (detail)

Beci Orpin "Beyond the pale" (detail)

Anne Brennan "Kerryn" (detail)

Martin Hodge "Turret" (detail)

last chance to see, three setting suns

Today is the last chance to check out the current exhibitions, featuring:
Jason Waterhouse, Martin Hodge and Bryan Spier, Rhett D'Costa, Renee Cosgrave, Liang Luscombe and Troy Christmass.

Jason's actually going to be demolishing his installation in the afternoon, welcoming people to climb on his mound, pull it apart and even take bits away with them if they want.

And here's a little refresher reminder of the art from the group exhibition:

open and close and open and close

There's a certain cyclical nature with art exhibitions. Shows go up, we have a big launch, they run for a month, there's another surge of rejuvenated interest as they near their end, and then off the walls and floor they come before everything gears up again and kapow! New art exhibition opening. It's like rapidly changing seasons.

This weekend is the last chance to catch a glimpse of Jason's and Martin's work, and the curated show I put together. And for some of the work, the last chance to get your hands on it for yourself. I know it's my job to advise on buying art, but I could quite happily give you plenty of good reasons to pick up any of the art in these shows. Every single one of the artists is just the sort of artist that (a) works really hard, (b) produces clever work that is also visually compelling, and (c) shows great potential to continue developing and producing high quality art in the future. While there's really only one good reason you should buy it - because you like it - these other reasons seal the deal. Plus you get to be a part of that wonderful tradition of supporting the arts.

Next weekend, the exhibition cycle resets and we kick off with a new set of terrific artists and artworks. Our openings are open invite and we would love to see you come along. The images here are of recent openings we've had, where there's much merriment, a chance to meet interesting people, or just look at the handsome and pretty ones, have a relaxing drink and even do some late night shopping. Thanks to an unnaturally high abundance of quality restaurants on Piper Street, you can start at the opening and then head off to dinner afterwards. Perfect really.

Martin Hodge: concept and execution

Martin’s work has always been popular at Stockroom. It’s bold, it’s architectural, and it’s playful. And for his current exhibition he has again delivered work with a characteristic punch. His large steel screens in particular carry a special potency, a beautiful balance of idea and material. The steps he’s taken along the way to bring the work to its final resolution are thoughtful and executed with precision.

Martin Hodge, Barbie

At a distance we see familiar characters – Barbie, Batman, a lamb. They’re photographic and appear as if they have depth and tone. Not dissimilar to scaled up images from a newspaper print. But at closer inspection they reveal something mind-blowing. The screen is completely black, no grey tones whatsoever, and punctured with hexagons of varying size.

So there’s a few questions this triggers off. Why have these normally tiny little dolls and action figures been blown up to human scale, and what impact does that have? Why are they lasercut into steel, and not, say, printed on paper or painted on canvas? And why have they been manipulated digitally before putting them on the walls?

Martin Hodge, Batman and Lamb

Maybe blowing up to human scale makes you realise the caricature nature of the figures. It amplifies the thin limbs of Barbie, the bulging muscles of Batman. A skinny, 5 foot tall bobble-headed Barbie is hardly an attractive proposition to anyone. She couldn’t possibly stand on those teensy feet. And the classic ‘condom-full-of-walnuts’ physique of Batman would not instil a sense of confidence in anyone relying on him to fight against a villain. He’d barely be able to put his hands together. A 4 year-old would kick him in the codpiece before he had a chance to swing his meaty arms in any direction. Who are these idols? These frail figures of celebration.

This leads on to another slightly haunting element in the imagery - a sense of religious iconography. A lamb and a jesus-christ pose. Sacrificial figures delivered to us as membranes through which shadows are cast on walls. Figures of power, rendered in miniature plastic and resized in steel.

Maybe the lasercut steel is a filter. The images created exist in our minds thanks to the gaps in the screen. We acquire so many of our cultural stories through screens – literal and metaphoric. They are filtered, some parts highlighted, some parts edited out. And what about hexagons? Hexagons in rows look like beehives. Beehives are made up of worker drones and one queen who births all the young. And all the young grow up inside little hexagon rooms.

And maybe, digital manipulation is an extension of the artistic urge itself. Think of early humans picking up a charcoaled branch from the fire and scraping it across a flat rock to make a line. 21^st century artists can capture the light reflecting off objects in a box that converts that light into coded digits of 1s and 0s. There’s all manner of magic that can be conjured up after that. Robots can print out those images by shooting lasers through steel. Imagine that!