Brutalist Dance is a sculptural assemblage of geometric parts arranged in relation to each other. Through an intuitive practice, each object's placement and created negative space informs the next without any prior planning or narrative attached.
The strong architectural undertones of Brutalist Dance happened by chance as the process of layering shapes focuses on the interplay between form, space and line without any intention of representing a specific form.
The selection of mostly steel and concrete geometric shapes along with a colour palette of grey, ultra-blue, yellow and black, align with key materials, shapes and colours typical of both the Bauhaus movement and Brutalist architecture. An unexpected correlation.
As the work evolved in a vertical progression further relating to architectural coincidence, l could see a brutalist dance in my decision making could no longer be ignored.
concrete (black oxide), painted steel, acrylic, space
71 x 44 x 25 cm
Finalist
Jenny Herbert-Smith, in conversation with Sebastian Goldspink, discusses her work Brutalist Dance. Recorded on 7 November 2021 at the 20th Anniversary Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize exhibition, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.
Judges of the 20th Anniversary Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize: Dr Lara Strongman (Director Curatorial and Digital, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia), Joanna Capon OAM (Art Historian, Curator and Industrial Archaeologist) and Jenny Kee AO (Artist and Fashion Designer).
Download PDF (750 KB)