Object of Obsession - Carly Snoswell

Opening - 12:00 AM - Wednesday, 3rd of April

Artist Talk - 6:00 PM

Running - 3 Apr 2013 - 20 Apr 2013

In the context of the material qualities of our everyday life, my practice considers repetitive process within sculpture and installation practice that impose both methods and gestures that guide the form. Through exploring the functional and visual qualities of small, common mass-produced items, rules and limitations are then imbedded within a process imposed upon these objects, celebrating their inherent function, and shifting their energy, to create engaging installations. The objects essentially do what they are made to do; however allusions occur through repetition and accumulation, as the work grows and takes on a life of its own. Through this process I investigate accumulative, rule-based artwork and questions surrounding when and if an artwork begins and ends.

As an artist and even as a child I would be in a constant state of making, accumulating things created during a preoccupied moment. I aimed to employ this process of unconscious making to keep my work spontaneous and open for interpretation. The pleasure of making drives my work and I wanted to explore how this kind of emotion resonates through the work that is produced.

Recently with this body of work I have become engaged with the idea of collecting, using objects that have been accumulated over time by myself and through the help of others. There is something so satisfying about large collections, taking an otherwise throwaway item and holding onto it, transforming it into something else. In line with my work, there is an interesting association that can be made through taking mass produced, functional items and utilising them in an aesthetic way, changing it's function, forcing the viewer to perceive the objects differently. The audience is compelled to see what is not initially seen. As a result of this repetition, along with the simple methods of construction I employ, these installations accumulate and form according to physical tendencies, resulting in associations with "natural" appearance of forms for the viewer. Similarly, the materials assert industrial replication, a constant production of consumer products and waste, highlighting the human tendency towards constant making. This is not an intentional aesthetic; rather it happens through the intuitive process of making, allowing the viewer to delve into the natural world for associations and meaning.

- Carly Snoswell, 2013