▶ FILM OF CORRIGAN FAIRBAIRN PRODUCING 'SILENCE'

▶ NEW IN THE STOCKROOM: CORRIGAN FAIBAIRN 'AURORA' & 'IDLE TRANSITION'

Left: Corrigan Fairbairn, 'Aurora' 2010, canvas, steel & wire, 16 x 15.5 x 10cm 

Right: Corrigan Fairbairn, 'Idle Transition' 2010, canvas, steel & wire, 13 x 14.5 x 10cm 

Corrigan Fairbairn’s ‘Aurora’ and ‘Idle Transition’ are small sculptures animated by their spiky exterior and rotund shape. Stretched between the metal loops and arcs, Fairbairn has fixed canvas with small twists of wire. The canvas is painted in a restricted palette of faint earthy tones, which soften the hard lines of the work. The spiky edge of the sculptures are contrasted by the fluid movement of their curved frames.

▶ NEW IN THE STOCKROOM: CORRIGAN FAIRBAIRN 'LEAF'

Corrigan Fairbairn, 'Leaf' (left, front + right views) 2011, welded steel, wire, canvas, acrylic, 290 x 62 x 53cm

I feel as though each sculpture I make is a reflection on the one that preceded it, with the current work developing qualities from the last.

In a recent sculpture I was excited by an arcing line that swept through the work and thought that this would be an interesting idea to expand on. “Leaf” is the expansion and development of this sculptural motif, with arcing lines flowing against the wall it rests on.

The leaf from which the colour
palette of the sculpture was derived.

Recently in my sculptures I have enjoyed the use of earthy colours, influenced by the natural bushland that surrounds my home and studio. I think this palette is appropriate to the work and does not conflict with the contrast between metal and canvas.

I gave the sculpture its name because the colours in the work were taken from a leaf I had picked up. The imagery itself is not a reference to the leaf or anything in particular. It is a development on the motif I enjoyed in another work with a continued composition that I feel complimented this motif.

Although I had not planned for the imagery to reference a leaf, I take pleasure in the thought that it might resonate this way.

-Corrigan Fairbairn, 2011