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Tony Adams
the Garden Path
Port Phillip Bay (detail) exhibited at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery, 2007
Tony studied sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney and
completed a Masters of Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Over the past fourteen years, his sculptural practice has utilised
materials and objects from his immediate environment including;
industrial waste, plant matter and rural waste and more recently urban
waste. These materials have been refigured into objects, installations
and ephemeral site specific works. Tony is currently working on a
Masters by Research at Monash University called Anatomy of Waste. This
project involves exploring the notion of artist as archaeologist, or more
precisely a 'flotsamotolgist'. In collecting and working with the refuse
and junk of modern society, this work is inherently involved in political
and social commentary. Importantly, Tony's project is also concerned
with reusing and revealing the aesthetic qualities of these materials.
Tony recently won the Montalto Sculpture Prize with an ecological work
entitled Vanish [collaboration with Caitlin Street]. Tony's works are held
in various private and public collections.
‘10-15 knots on the
bay' explores the
geographic form of Port
Philip Bay utilising the
flotsam and jetsam
collected from its shoreline.
Over a period of two years
these materials were
gleaned from one site -
Middle Park Beach.
During this time I have
used and re-used these
materials in a number of
installations which have
dealt with the interventions
of cataloguing, displaying
and storage, as well as
engaging with the
aesthetics, history and
meaning of these
neglected and discarded
objects. This continued
refiguring of the materials
is essential to my concern
with developing a
sustainable art practice.
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