Review: Central Goldfields Sculpture Award
{Sue Boucher}

Regional Arts Complex, Maryborough
March 6 - 31

Congratulations to Ewen Coates, the winner of the Central Goldfields Award and to Elizabeth Hewitt the winner of the Young Sculptors Award, both members of the CSA and both sharing with the community of Maryborough contemporary sculpture of outstanding quality.

This was the third Annual Acquisitive Award and exhibition held at the Central Goldfields Regional Arts Complex. Over 45 artists participated with over 60 sculptural works on display.

Situated at several sites around the town and district of Maryborough along with the Regional Arts Complex, the exhibition surveyed the incredible and exciting diversity that contemporary sculpture today manifests. In future years there will, no doubt, be more interest in using the great outdoor setting associated with the complex.

Artist Deborah Halpern and sculpture, curator and writer Ken Scarlett were this years judges and their decision must be commended. Ewen Coates' Kinetic Table is a beautifully crafted sculpture of cast bronze bowling balls each with raised mechanised propellers. Triangular in its configuration, a shape that naturally draws the viewer closer, this piece mesmerises all who view it with its symmetry and motion. Coates' engagement of the viewer in this way is not by chance as he often involves the subtleties of light and repetition to augment the focus of his work. On a short tour of the town centre I observed a group on a bowling green, and on reflection, the related poise and sensitivity in Coates' work was delightful.


Kinetic Table 1999, Ewen Coates

Elizabeth Hewitt's Untitled piece, a collection of cushions made of string and wire, create a wall of tension as they hang vertically, voluminous yet void of any stuffing. Configured with a sense of weightlessness these works of Hewitt's, intricate in their detailing and design, appease and interogate the audience to question the object of beauty and the object of purpose. Known for her macramé and knotting, Hewitt's use of wire is beautifully manipulated and crafted allowing it to take on a far greater quality and texture.


Untitled 1999, Elizabeth Hewitt

The management of the Maryborough Regional Arts Complex and the Central Goldfields Shire Council, who fund the acquisitive Central Goldfields Award and Young Sculptors Award, are to be congratulated for their initiative and continuing support of sculpture.

Back to Newsletter Index