Phoenix combines two significant motifs from experience in the Australian landscape: sheep's wool and the element of fire. The figure of the Phoenix itself symbolising the death-rebirth cycle, in this particular case, the regenerative power of the Australian flora, rising out of the ashes after the raging bushfire. Australian wool is used as the material to create the sculptural wing and fire form of the Phoenix; fire is evoked by the blending of differently dyed wool fibres. Phoenix is one in a series of mythopoetic sculptures which uses the wing or bird-form to explore notions of ascension, transcendence and regeneration.
Annette Thas, photographer, filmmaker, mixed media and sculpture/installation artist, was born in 1961 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. After initially studying German Philology, Annette left Belgium at the age of 19 to study sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in France. She later studied drawing at the Sint-Lucas School of Arts Ghent, travelling and working throughout Europe before settling in Perth, Western Australia in 1987.
Annette obtained a Bachelor of Arts - Media Studies from Edith Cowan University before undertaking postgraduate studies in Fine Arts Photography & Filmmaking at the University of Western Australia under the tutelage of Dr Peter Mudie. After a decade in Australia, she returned to live in France for several years and later chose to return to Perth, where she lives with her Australian husband and young family.
In March 2014, Annette exhibited Wave 1 at Sculpture by the Sea Cottesloe 2014 and received the EY People's Choice Award and the Kids Prize.
wool, silk, metal
70 x 70 x 55 cm
Finalist
Judges of the 2015 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize: Dr Michael Brand (Director of the Art Gallery of NSW), Penelope Seidler AM (Arts Patron and Director of Harry Seidler & Associates) and Barbara Flynn (International Curatorial Advisor).