The Machine showcases the work of Arts Project Australia artists Alan Constable, Chris O'Brien and Terry Williams. All three artists explore machine aesthetics within their practice.
All three artists create work that provide a reflective quiet space in which to admire the handmade, whilst also reminding us of the constant presence of machines in the modern world.
Alan Constable uses the camera as inspiration for his stylistically unique ceramic work. Displaying similarities to the Funk Ceramicists of the 1960's, such as Australian artist Margaret Dodd, Constable's cameras can be viewed as extensions of the human body, rather than merely direct replicas.
Chris O'Brien has an obsession with cars. From the humble Cushman to his more expansive range of trains, planes and road sweepers, O'Brien works in a wide array of media from balsa wood and mount-board to icy-pole sticks and masking tape. O'Brien often employs Google Earth and other available technology to demarcate a space in the world.
Terry Williams has long been fascinated with extraterrestrial beings, space travel, flying machines and invented languages. Williams' prolific production results in hundreds of finished works each month, his working methods in themselves resembling a machine. Williams' recent soft sculptures range from tiny to magnificent in scale, creating alternate territories populated with objects and fantastical beings.
Arts Project Australia is a not-for-profit centre of excellence that supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promoting their work and advocating for inclusion within contemporary art practice. Arts Project have been promoting the work of artists with an intellectual disability for 35 years, developing their studio and gallery to further artists' place in society and the art world. One hundred and forty artists work in the studio each week. The artists are supported in by arts workers, who are professional artists in their own right. Arts Project artists exhibit in the Northcote gallery, throughout Melbourne, nationally and internationally.
