By Mikayla van Loon
Sculpture is a uniquely personal form of artwork, exploring textures and structure, curvature and angles in an exploration of meaning and self connection.
The newest exhibition opening at the YAVA Gallery and Arts Hub features a range of artists who have delved into the world around them and have extracted moments, inspiration and insights to create their sculptures.
Extending beyond the boundaries of the Yarra Ranges, artists have travelled far and wide to be a part of the INterior Small Sculptures Exhibition, a collaboration with Yering Station’s annual sculpture exhibition.
In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of Yering’s most notable exhibition, YAVA has launched what it hopes to be an inaugural display of sculpture work in partnership with the winery.
Gallery director Dakini Maddock said it was very exciting to have local artists displaying their works but also a rather large number of famous sculptors as well.
“I feel quite humbled and privileged to have some of these works on display. I know a lot of the artists have had a lot of challenges because of Covid, so it’s lovely to have them all here and it feels very special,” she said.
Some of the artists include kinetic sculptor Alex Sanson who has had spectacular light displays at a number of festivals in Melbourne, as well as bronze sculptor Stephen Glassborow.
Former children’s book author and artist David Miller said as someone who has been involved in YAVA since its inception, it was exciting to host an exhibition that has attracted those from outside the local area.
“Every exhibition is totally different. This one’s very exciting because it’s bringing in work from beyond the Yarra Valley whereas normally, the workers here are our local artists in which there are many and very varied,” he said.
“But this being in conjunction with the Yering Sculpture [Exhibition] is bringing new artists to us of a very, very high level of work, not to say that our own artists aren’t but we don’t have a lot of sculptors and it’s just wonderful to see this range of work.”
Mr Miller’s paper sculpture called ‘Phoenix’ depicts the bird of fire in hues of yellow and orange, rising through the flames.
“It is a bird that rises from the ashes, so it’s about rebirth and rising from burnt things and I just loved the idea of that rebirthing,” he said.
The use of paper for Mr Miller comes from seeing his father sculpt heavy objects, so he decided to go in the opposite direction by creating something weightless.
Inspiration for many artists comes in all forms and for Savaad Felich, his artwork ‘Skipping Girl’ draws on his childhood growing up in Richmond and seeing the iconic girl skipping above his head.
“When I was a young boy of 10 I used to go to the Richmond Primary School so I had to cross that road every day beneath the skipping so it’s always been etched in my memory and I’ve always wanted to do a piece,” he said.
“It was possibly one of my first encounters with sculpture so it’s always remained with me and I like the image of a carefree young person enjoying themselves.”
For Denise Keele-bedford her marble sculpture of tea canisters has been inspired by her time spent in China and the idea of joining in conversation over a cup of tea.
“It was interesting to me looking at our western concept of the tea ceremony and how women in particular gather and solve the problems of the world and the problems of family and have great conversations all around a cup of tea,” she said.
Working for the first time with marble, Ms Keele-bedford’s artwork explores the intricacies and characteristics of marble as a material and is just a small section of a much larger installation she has been working on.
While the YAVA exhibition allows small scale sculptures to be put on display, it has also attracted people like Hugh McLachlan from Tasmania who has brought with him a two and a half metre sculpture for Yering and smaller version for the gallery.
“So it’s marine grade stainless steel and the idea is that sort of bathing woman. It’s just like an intriguing form of a woman in just a very relaxed mode in this bathing sense,” he said.
“What you can do with metal is transform it from a solid to virtually make it look like it’s flowing.”
As an unusual exhibition for YAVA and for a gallery space of its size, INterior is not to be missed. The display will run from 10 February until 6 March.
