18 August - 5 September 2005
about the exhibition
Anna Eggert’s mesh sculptures have an immediate attraction; the shimmering surfaces and flowing lines of the draped feminine figures both demand and reward closer inspection. What we initially perceive to be solid form is in fact transparent, and the thin gauze blowing in the breeze is actually heavy stainless steel mesh, thus setting up a palpable tension between form and material. These deceptively simple sculptures are full of these intriguing contradictions, demanding quiet contemplation and revealing something of the complexity of our visual language. “Some will find their eyes caught up in the female form itself, some in the play of light over the shifting, fluid surface, sensing the complexity of transparent depth.” Being shown for the first time is a new body of work from Anna which brings together elements of her sculptural and painting practice. Her “water pieces” are a series of wall pieces in heat-treated stainless steel mesh that, as with her figures, elucidate the experience of looking. “My aim here is for the viewer to have the same kind of experience that they would have if they were looking at water. Just like water, the energy of this work is in its resistance to stasis. The pieces change as the light changes, the shadows move with each step.”
Anna Eggert completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Canberra School of Art in 1990. Since then, she has exhibited regularly in Sydney and Melbourne and this is her second solo exhibition with Beaver Galleries. In 2001, she was awarded the Waverley Art Prize for Sculpture and was a finalist in the Wynne Prize Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2003, she was a finalist in both the National Sculpture Prize at the National Gallery of Australia, and the McClelland Sculpture Award in Melbourne, winning the People’s Choice Award for the latter. The following year, Anna again won the People’s Choice Award in the McClelland Sculpture Award and was finalist in both the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the Alice Springs Art Prize. Anna’s work is represented in various public collections including the Australian Defence Force Academy (Canberra), Alice Springs Art Foundation, Macquarie University (Sydney) and the ICON Museum of Art at Deakin University in Melbourne.
