IIW welded art exhibition, 2021

LAURENT RIVORY (Australia)

Laurent Rivory is an emerging Blue Mountains artist in Australia and a recent convert to steel sculpture. He has shown his work at various national exhibitions including Sculpture at the Farm (2019) , Sculpture in the Vineyards (2020) and Sculpture in the Garden (2019 and 2020) . He was a Finalist in the Georges River Art Prize 2019 . He has had two shows at Braemar Gallery in Springwood NSW, Ferrophilia (2020) and Ex Machina (2021) . Using scrap metal and local stone, Laurent aims for a sustainable art practice (he also welds using solar-generated power) influenced by pioneers of steel sculpture such as Gonzalez, Smith and Calder.

Contact info E-mail: Laurent.rivory@sydney.edu.au

Exhibit “ATLAS” “Atlas” was one of the exhibits at Laurent’s most recent “Ex-Machina” show, which played on the “artness” of old machines and tools. In “Ex-Machina”, he has preserved points of assembly or movement, maker marks and other evidence of past manufacture as an appreciation of the social history of the artefacts. Whilst these features help give each sculpture a machine-like character, the resulting contraptions are clearly implausible or non-functional on closer inspection. “Atlas” clearly reflects this futility of design by having a brace cross through the spokes of the wheel which means that the rotation of the wheel is extremely limited. Likewise, the spring and spring-like motif evoke some vertical motion through the elliptical aperture, but this is not possible due to the construction. In works such as “Atlas”, Laurent has to overcome the challenges of combining the various tools and scraps of metal, each of which have their own aesthetic properties, as well as the technical challenge of welding different types of materials (cast iron, spring steel, mild steel) – but overcoming these challenges contribute to the artistic and creative enjoyment of the art.

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