GARDEN OF CURIOSITIES: NEW WORK BY AMANDA SHELSHER
June 01-July 21, 2007, FORM Gallery Perth
‘My figurative sculptures have always reflected my life and the current journey that I am on. These new works depict my most recent journey of becoming a parent to two young children, and explore the diversity of emotions and experiences that I currently enjoy.’
Amanda Shelsher
Take a journey into Amanda Shelsher’s world - a garden of humans, animals, birds, seeds – a world of constant growth and evolution. Her world is an intimate one, a world of motherhood and protective nurturing, at once domestic and wild. Amanda invites you to take out your magnifying glasses and examine the tangled undergrowth in Garden of Curiosities – you might find something quirky, surprising, sublime.
Garden of Curiosities examines the relationship between motherhood and the cycles of nature, while celebrating the miracle of life. Juxtaposing human figures with hand-sculpted symbols from the natural world, Amanda’s works emphasise the cycles and flows that connect the natural environment, highlighting the significance of human life in these natural cycles.
Her thoughtful figures - traced with the delicate lines of tree branches, fruit and feathering roots, their hands holding bird nests, seedpods, houses – also compel us to consider the minutiae of nature. Gently compelling us to become explorers and discoverers (even if just for a while) Amanda’s figures reminds us that there is always more to life than meets the eye.
‘I want to show how wonderful nature is at a small level. I want people just to stop and look- it’s incredible.’
Amanda Shelser’s Garden of Curiosities, Essay for download HERE.