Ab-stractor

2005

tractor, styrofoam, resin, plastic, paint
280.0 x 170.0 x 160.0 cm

Finalist for the McClelland Sculpture Prize 2005

For many Australians the 'bush' is actually the man-made landscape of a farm, not the harsh landscape of Uluru. Discarded machinery in a field can emote as vivid a personal response as the sighting of Spinifex in a desert.

In Ab-stractor, the surface of the tractor mimics the look of thick layers of paint which accumulates on an artist's floor as a by-product of the painting process.

Visually, this studio accretion often creates a landscape in its own right. By covering the abandoned vehicle in what appears to be discarded paint, the combination of the two 'waste materials' creates another transformation.

Under a mass of organic melting colour, the familiar tractor becomes strange, allowing the viewer to 'see it' afresh.