Presented by GAS (Grid Art Space) courtesy of Vass Productions & Alex Theatre:
24 February – 18 March 2018
To coincide with the Australian premier of the Robert Askins stage production of Hand to God by Vass Productions, sculptor / master printmaker Adrian Spurr is exhibiting his extraordinary sculptures currently on display in the piano lounge / art space of the Alex Theatre in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda.
Originally from the UK Adrian has lived in Australia for over 20 years and is a local artist in residence at Shakespeare Grove Artists Studios which is part of Veg Out in St Kilda.
During the September 2017 St Kilda Art Crawl Adrian was invited to curate and exhibit his work along with 10 other artists at 33 Fitzroy Street St Kilda known as Punchinello Pop Up. The exhibition was so well received by locals and visitors, it remain open for a further two weeks on invitation by shop owner Jenni Li.
Adrian is committed to exhibiting his work and the work of other local artists to continue to enrich the St Kilda spirit and in turn landscape.
‘Art and its glorious influence is not fully realised until it is taken out of the studio and displayed for public viewing’. Adrian Spurr
‘Birnam Wood’
By Adrian Spurr
Sculptor / Master Printmaker
Carved red flowering eucalypt with pyro graph markings.
80 X 45 cms 2018
$6,500
The title of this artwork is taken from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.
The third prediction Macbeth is given by the witches is that he should not fear until Great Birnam Wood should move to high Dunsinane.
Of course, Macbeth cannot imagine that a wood might advance upon his fortress, but it does when Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, orders his soldiers to cut down the trees of Birnam Wood and move them as camouflage toward Dunsinane Hill.
Macbeth rightly starts to fear for his life…
The sculpture is of a man in Malcolm’s force, standing amidst the trees on a bright morning with the shadows of branches and leaves upon his face. The man is contemplating the endeavor he is about to undertake, the defeat of a tyrant.
Ecce homo! Behold the man!
By Adrian Spurr
Sculptor / Master Printmaker Rosewood & anatomical foot 50 x 35 x 35 cms
2016
$4,500
A found life sized anatomical model skeleton of the human foot.
Daniel Defoe’s fictional protagonist Robinsen Crusoe (1719) comes across a footprint in the sand and knows he is not longer alone.
The most memborable photographs of the first Moon landing are of the astronauts footprint, Mary Leakey’s discovery of the 3.7 million year old Laetoli footprints in Tanzania or our contemporary concern regarding our ecological footprint. The references are multitudinous.
This particular skeleton of a foot is encased in a sealed nugget, a pod or a capsule with a glass front that emphasizes the act of observing, of visually recognising, perhaps even assessing. The beautiful colour and grain of the reclaimed Rosewood (which itself comes from ever increasingly endangered rainforest) felled in 1994, softens the hard edged geometry of their machined wooden shapes.
Head of a (Blind) Prophet’
By Adrian Spurr
Sculptor / Master Printmaker Adrian Spurr
Carved limestone and stucco 60 x 30 x 30 cms
2015
$4,500
The work itself pays tribute to the face in Medieval sculpture of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, work made by sculptors for the great Gothic cathedrals of France and Germany.
Many of the sculptures were smashed during bouts of iconoclasm and their heads now reside in museums across the world having been disinterred by archaeologists in latter years.
This work, Head of a (Blind) Prophet is set in an old wooden draw that I found in a dilapidated chicken shed in the Wimmera. The draw was a nesting box but formerly came from a Spice cabinet. The intention of the drawer is to reference the museum exhibit / item status of so many of these heads.
This head of a prophet though, also wears ear protectors, a necessary item of safety equipment for sculptors but metaphorically for this prophet, a defense against all the noise that litters our modern world.
‘Patrizia’
By Adrian Spurr Sculptor / Master Printmaker
Found antique chair and macracarpa wood. 2017
$4,500
This sculpture is a portrait of an elderly lady, a mother or grandmother.
The chair is representative of the woman and sitting in her lap is the sum total of a life’s experience.
Memories, sensations, echoes, reminiscences; the souvenirs of a long life that by necessity are ordered, collated and fixed.
But when the time eventually comes all this body of experience will separate and disperse back into the universe from where it was derived.
For expressions of interest: Kerrie Pacholli 0423 308 005 or kerrie.pach@gmail.com
text & images © pationpics.com
Scene design by Jacob Billista, lighting by Amelia Lever-Davidson, costumes by Cloe Greaves and sound design by Ian Moorhead synchronised so well with the performances that we the audience were able to be totally absorbed by the story.
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