Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Daddy

Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Daddy: new work by Scott Eady

Scott Eady's new exhibition opens next week. It 'toys' with modernist sculpural forms presenting scaled up versions of his children's plasticine makings. A life size clown leans against a large white blob - deflated and a little sorry.

The exhibition also includes a series of wire drawings.

Scott will be in town to install the show.

Scott says: "Through involving my own children in making this body of work, I am entering a discussion, or at least questioning the dual roles as artist and parent.
While traditionally the combination of these two roles may be viewed as carrying inherent tensions, the process of collaborating with my children effectively turned any possible disjunctions into benefits, even essential contributing factors.
Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Daddy is an extension of thoughts that are sweet and witty, as well as self-deprecating and indulgent - territory explored in the 2006 exhibition, The World Keeps Turning.
The majority of the works in this exhibition are blob-like sculptural forms cast in either bronze or fibreglass. Upon first viewing, they seem wildly gestural and expressively free-form. They are in fact meticulously scaled-up versions of plasticine originals produced by my three children.
The full scale 'clown' leans against a life size semi-figurative but fully abstract blob. The original was made from plastacine by Ari [his son] when he was four and it stood about 30mm tall. It reminded me of Willem de Kooning’s bronze figures and William Tucker’s lumpy forms. More recent artists of interest and influence that come to mind are Rebecca Warren and Urs Fischer.
All the abstract bronzes in the show were first made from Dukit in miniature by my kids. They also named them all. I then scaled them up using clay and cast them in bronze. Ari gave Grandad its name.
Although the resulting forms are the very opposite of ideal classical sculpture, it was my goal that the objects remain formally and technically complex as well as capable of contributing to discussions that might include but not limited to high/low art, creative and cognitive development, role and status of artist as parent and a critique of modernist sculptural practice."

Mary Newton Gallery
150 Vivian St
Wellington
tel: 04-385-1699
cell: 021-213-2257
www.marynewtongallery.com
www.marynewtongallery.blogspot.com

"Joyful Sorrowful Glorious" new work by Megan Hansen-Knarhoi until 27 March 2010

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