I have just installed a sculpture in a home in Bronte. It was purpose made for the site, in response to the site, to the client, to what I imagined the client might want and what I was motivated to make.
Homescreen under construction at Wamboin
When making a work, you go by your thinking and by your instincts.
The client was generous to not limit my thinking, by not saying what they would like. They trusted me.
Homescreen in different light.
On the day the sculpture was installed, the work provided somewhat of a surprise to the client. The anticipation of a particular ‘pleasure’ was not immediately apparent.
This work was challenging and demanding. It did not sit compliantly on the wall but added an element that was as potent as the building. The sculpture somewhat subjugated the building.
This work would change what it was to live in the house, and by doing so, would make being there different.
It may be that this overstates or exaggerates what the work does, or will do. It was the impression though that I was left, as I left, on the day of installation.
Homescreen Photo:CP
Normally, when viewing a work of art, you want to see all of it. With Homescreen, when you are looking at it some part is always missing. Viewed from inside the house, the sides of the work are hidden by the walls. The bottom of the work is concealed by the terrace. The only way to see the whole work is to be in it. There is no standing back, to get a distance to appraise it. Like with ‘Field Art’ of the 1960’s, you can only see a work when you are immersed in it.
The work functions like a decompression chamber. You pass through as you leave home and you are momentarily consumed by it when you return.
By good fortune, the afternoon sun shines across the work teasing out the rises and the hollows.
For me this sculpture commission has been an altogether happy experience. As I said to the client, commissioning a sculpture is like adopting a child. You don’t know what you’ve got until you have come to know it. It’s a relationship.
Homescreen Photo: CP
Keen observers will notice the title of the work has changed from Home to Homescreen. There is already a Home in my work history and Homescreen is a better title for this work.