Image courtesy of Luke Chiswell
Luke Chiswell
Gallery 2
Friday 6 September - Sunday 29 September 2024
Opening Thursday 5 September 2024, 6pm - 8pm
"Cutting Off One's Nose" by Luke Chiswell explores humanity’s paradoxical destruction of nature through a series of aluminium sculptures. This solo exhibition delves into humanity's interconnectedness with the environment. Each sculpture, meticulously sand-casted in solid aluminium, portrays an axe head transforming into a tree branch. The handle, originally wood from a tree, is now rendered in lifeless metal, with preserved wood grain emphasising the stark transition from life to lifelessness. This transformation embodies the themes of life and death, utilising the very tool that determines the fate of the material it once was. As natural beings, humans paradoxically contribute to the destruction of nature. Chiswell’s works bring to light the often overlooked origins of natural objects, encouraging a recognition of our place within the natural world and engaging with contemporary concerns of ecology, preservation, and our relationship with nature.
About the Artist
Luke Chiswell is a contemporary artist working between Canberra and Los Angeles. His work explores language and the transformation of value through materiality. His practice employs screen printing, painting, and sculpture. Chiswell's work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, London, Beijing, and Paris.
