from concept ➪➪➪ completion Here are some details of how the GLISTENING sculpture was made in a Brunswick workshop: To start, I made a 3D spatial mock-up of the sculpture in situ. The curatorial team @studiojohnfish allocated me one of the large gum trees on the beautiful site in the Grampians. It needed to be something large enough in scale to feel impactful yet light weight so it could be rigged up a tree high enough so people couldn’t climb it. Consequently, I wanted to make something that wasn’t intrusive on the natural environment but instead make something that looked like it could have grown out of it. Like some kind of deformation or abnormality. Once the design had been approved, we 3D printed a concept model to get a better visual understanding of the volume of the sculpture, it’s different viewpoints and proportions. From there, @oldfourlegs welded the curvilinear steel substructure that created an extremely sturdy and robust foundation. One the base was secure, we layered sheets of recycled/ scrap foam off cuts and glued them together to begin giving the sculpture form. Once the primary blocks were down, we hand carved and sanded for days until the body of the sculpture was smooth and sealed. We drilled holes into the solid glass orbs with the largest drill I’ve ever seen so they could be seamlessly screwed into the allocated points. The curved glass creates a particular type of refraction I often explore in my animation work and wanted to the bring this into a real world context. In an interesting turn of events, we had to frost them because under direct sunlight they turned into giant magnifying glasses. In the end, I think the diffusion ended up creating a more dynamic relationship between natural light and solid form but consider this is a precautionary tale for anyone thinking about using solid curved class outdoors! Once the sculpture was painted, we finished the exterior in pigmented liquid latex to give it a durable finish that looks and feels somewhere between wet skin or bone. You’ll be seeing the GLISTENING sculpture around Naarm in the coming months- I’m looking forward to sharing the work in public spaces ♥︎♥︎♥︎