Sculpture occupies a curious position in contemporary art, for it seems that the term now brands any art dealing with real space. Yet as a popular descriptor for three-dimensional material objects, it has been sidelined by terms such as ‘installation’ and ‘object-based art’. Accordingly, the cross-section of works selected for the National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition at Dell Gallery offered a rare opportunity to reassess the specific concerns and current definitions of sculptural practice.
In its endeavour to showcase the hybrid nature of recent Australian sculpture, the National Sculpture Prize came close to being a forced exercise in diversity, with no two entries constructed from the same material. Nonetheless, there were some shared concerns amongst the participating artists, such as an interest in manufacturing processes and how these relate to the traditional sculptural practice of producing form from matter. The eighteen works also displayed a general affinity for ‘seductive production values’, whether factory-polished or handcrafted. This recourse to an ‘art of spectacle’ acknowledged that contemporary sculptural practice is shaped by the desire for visibility amidst the competing aesthetics of today’s material culture.1
The lush and sleekly commercial appearance of several of the works succeeded in lending the exhibition a popular appeal. Christopher Langton’s Dolly superimposes the glossy veneer of a blow-up toy onto what appears to be a digitalised model of a virus, while Christian de Vietri’s Einstein’s refrigerator 2nd law affects a slick design aesthetic that renders it as enticing as a new Apple iBook. An equally seductive yet more intimate form of craftsmanship distinguishes Term, Charles Robb’s fibreglass portrait bust. Positioned awkwardly at the junction of wall and floor, Robb’s sculpture provided an unsettling counterpoint to