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Melbourne based artist Matthew Harding has been announced as the recipient of the prestigious McClelland Sculpture Award 2014 receiving a cash prize of $100,000 for his work Void (2014).
Robert Lindsay, Director, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery said, “Matthew Harding has consistently explored the linear patterns and mathematical principles found in Nature with inventive elegance and visual poise. His McClelland Award winning sculpture Void has an intricate geometry that culminates in the grandeur of an overarching spiral form. It is a major contemporary sculpture that embodies a sense of the eternal geometry of Nature.”
More specifically, “Void seeks to circumscribe the peripheries of our limited perceptions, informed by our anthropometric scale in relation to that which is big, the universe; and that which is small, an atom,” says Harding.
In Void Harding highlights the individual elements that combine to make the whole we perceive, encouraging an appreciation of the intricate natural systems surrounding us and their beauty. Void engages in a literal way with the notions of balance and awe, through the seemingly weight-defying suspension of the work. Harding represents this balance through the suspension of Void, a structure that ‘aesthetically hovers above its apparent strength to weight ratio’. The work is also semi-translucent, allowing sunlight to create passages through the work, this being intentionally reminiscent of light through a forest canopy.
Working across wood, stone, bronze, steel, glass and ephemeral media, Harding highlights the connections between nature and mathematics, drawing from his broad background in both the visual arts and construction industries.
In a career spanning almost three decades Matthew has produced a substantial body of work across a wide range of artistic disciplines – large-scale public artworks, sculptural exhibition pieces, craft objects and furniture design. His work is part of several important public and corporate collections nationally and internationally.
The McClelland Award is the richest and most important biennial outdoor sculpture Award in Australia. Bringing together the best sculptural practice from across Australia, all 33 finalists sculptures will be displayed along the picturesque sculpture trail which winds its way through natural bush landscape and grasslands.
McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery
Until 19 July, 2015
Melbourne
Matthew Harding and his winning work, Void, 2014, stainless steel, 650 x 800 x 260cm
Photo credit: 2014 Jim Lee Photo
