The Third Australian Sculpture Triennial

The Third Australian Sculpture Triennial featured 69 artists showing in four major Melbourne venues, plus satellite exhibitions in 24 other public and private galleries. These major exhibitions were comprised of Sculpture in Wood at the National Gallery of Victoria; Robert Klippel and Sculpture in the Landscape at Heide Park and Gallery; Meaning, Materials and Milieu at 200 Gertrude Street Fitzroy; and Eight Artists as Sculptors at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

In his catalogue essay introducing the Sculpture in Wood exhibition, NGV Curator of Sculpture Geoffrey Edwards elaborates:

“In no respect is this exhibition of sculpture in wood intended as brazen advocacy of the primacy of medium and process over imagery and concept. After all, such an inference could only be construed as wholesale folly. Rather–and most emphatically-the argument for focusing on this particular stream of contemporary Australian sculpture, as the National Gallery of Victoria component of the present Triemnial, lies else where.
Indeed, it concerns the fact that we have lately seen a remarkaile resurgence of interest amongst younger generation and established artists, alike, in direct working with organic, natural and so-called ‘low-tech’ materials as immensely evocative and versatile sculptural media. Furthermore, within such a panoply of sculptural resource, it is a reasonably straightforward matter to identify one particular material as being pre-eminent.

That is the medium of wood- one of the most ancient and readily accessible of all substances to be used for artistic expression.

What concerns us in relation to this exhibition, however, is not simply that it may appear as if, all of a sudden, unprecedented numbers of sculptors have begun to work in wood- whether in its absolutely raw state; neatly dressed by timber mer-chants; recycled in the guise of found objects, such as foundry patterns and sections of packing case; and even as one of the finely-processed proprietary fibreboards developed initially for the building and furniture industries. More importantly, it is worth seeking, in the context of the works assembled here, an appreciation of the significant aesthetic impulses and philosophies which have dictated, often at a subconscious level, the use of wood as a most empathetic and apposite medium.”

Extract from Geoffrey Edwards “Sculpture in Wood”, Third Australian Sculpture Triennial, NGV 1987, p.87

References: “Sculpture blossoms in triennial showing”, Terry Smith, Times on Sunday, 20 September 1987. Find out more