Fine Arts and Music Collected Works - Research Publications

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Automatic

Meade, J (Auckland Art Fair 2011, and MADA Art Gallery, Monash University, 2011)

Automatic, 2011, is a wall sculpture constructed in fibreglass and polyester resin and coated two-tone in automotive enamel. The form, which is mounted flush to the wall at head height, suggests a power button for a machine. There is a little negative space between the inner dome and the outer casing, creating a sense of depth and a shadow that softens the outer ring of the pale dome. The sculpture’s design invites fingertip stimulation as if it were a body’s erogenous zone. The touching of a person’s erogenous zone is regarded as an act of physical intimacy. The work is therefore intended to be sexual and has been interpreted as queer but this is a non-exclusive classification.
Siamese

Meade, J (Carriageworks, 2012)

‘Siamese’ (2012-14) is a freestanding sculpture (1.3m high) of two spheres covered in black human hair elevated on a display stand. The two ‘heads’ abut each other (one a little higher than the other) and their tangle of hair acts to converge their identities. The work is an investigation into the potential of formlessness in the sculptural object while it manages to maintain its autonomous identity. The partial blurring/dissolution of the object occurs in the merger of the twin heads and the falling tresses of the hair which dissolve the outline of the sculpture. The figurative work has links to Japanese anime and the horror/monster film genre. It also has a relationship to hair: to the styling of hair and the making of wigs (postiche). Similar works by the artist include ‘Self Portrait as Mary Magdalene’ (2004), also a small figure (1m high) draped in long black human hair.
Honeymoon Hitching Post

Meade, J (The Honeymoon Suite, Melbourne, and National Art School, Sydney, 2016)

The sculpture, Honeymoon Hitching Post, re-stages the Panton Chair, a classic pop Danish design by Verner Panton. The chair was the first plastic (& fibreglass), mass-produced, stackable, moulded chair cast in one piece. It was introduced to the market through a Swiss company, Vitra, in 1967. The Hitching Post is one of my more humorous sculptures; it also has an erotic vibe to it, which is probably due to the ‘riding’ aspect of the saddle and the sensuous curves of the line. It also suggests the glossy red 1971 Rolling Stones tongue logo, by John Pasche, which originally appeared in inner sleeve of the Sticky Fingers album.
Maquette for Everyday Devotional

Meade, J (Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2016)

Maquette for Everyday Devotional (2016), is a 1:8 scale working model for a larger public commission, Everyday Devotional (2017), a 5m free-standing sculpture sited across from the City Botanic Gardens in Alice Street, Brisbane. Everyday Devotional is a figurative expression of the pleasure of living a life each day. The sculpture engages philosophically with a play of forces, as it relates to the human experience of joy and transcendence accessed through a devotion to physical practice.
Set Pieces

Meade, J (Sutton Gallery, 2016)

The exhibition, Set Pieces, sought to consider how the overall spatial, architectural and decorative details in the presentation of a discrete artwork might enhance the work, and the viewer’s experience of that work. It questions a range of factors currently influencing contemporary modes of exhibition display, such as recent installation art practices, the rising interest in exhibition design, and the increasing demand for an immersive experience for the viewing subject. The concept stems from a personal observation that contemporary solo and group exhibition in galleries and museums are becoming increasingly more focused on their staging. Artists and curators have taken up this installed quality when presenting art objects which might not typically fall into the category of the ‘art installation’. This area of research has significant relevance to contemporary sculpture.
Everyday Devotional

Meade, J (The Abian Botanic, Sunland Group, 2017)

Everyday Devotional (2017) is a freestanding sculpture located at the entrance to the Abian Botanic residential tower in Alice Street, Brisbane. The 5m sculpture was commissioned by the developer, Sunland Corporation to complement the curving architectural lines of the Wood Marsh building. The biomorphic, softly abstracted, form of the sculpture presents a figurative expression of the joy of living a life each day. The material is foundry cast marine grade aluminium, painted in white matte acrylic.
Set Pieces (2018)

Meade, J (TaraWarra Museum of Art, as part of the TARRAWARRA BIENNIAL 2018: FROM WILL TO FORM, 2018)

Set Pieces (2018), is re-working of an earlier iteration, the exhibition, Set Pieces (2016). The new version was commissioned for the TaraWarra Biennial 2018, and it aims to present the eleven sculptural objects as a group to the viewer without relying on a formal, overarching, narrative, inviting a less mediated address to the viewer. A modular display structure of unpainted, mill finished, aluminium is designed to present each sculpture individually, while, at the same time, it acts to cohere the objects as a group. The design of the display structure refers to a department store display unit. The unpainted mill finish does not compete with the highly chromatic and detailed sculptures. As each sculpture is roughly 500mm, the modular display device addresses their small scale by displaying them at various levels, low or high (over 2m), while allowing the group to be a larger-scaled installation in the museum. Its design allows the viewer to navigate their way in and out of the weaving display structure to access the sculptures in the round.
The Puschelhockers

Meade, J (Neon Parc Gallery, 2018)

The Puschelhockers refer to a time in the 1960’s. A puschelhocker is a small German vanity stool with hairpin-bend steel legs and a fluffy acrylic seat. They were used when dressing tables were common in bedrooms – particularly laminate dressing tables with brush and mirror sets and perfume bottles with a tasselled spray atomiser. My mother always had a dressing table like this, and I don’t think she ever sat at it. So it was a display of vanity and self-care.
Something for Everyone

Meade, J (Sutton Gallery, 2019)

Something for Everyone is a solo exhibition of small sculptural works at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, that ran from 25 May – 22 June 2019. Sutton Gallery is a commercial art gallery that has represented me since 1997. The exhibition had three works, all of which were based on previous works that I developed further for this show. The first was Likeness in Blue, 2019, a wall mounted work presented in two editions (of 6). This sculpture continues my exploration of, and fascination with, hair, and I use the same plastic industrial bristle (but in a different colour) that I have been sourcing from a Melbourne bristle factory since I was a student in Sculpture at the VCA in the early 1990’s. The Mini Puschelhockers, 2019, is a small version of a work from the previous year, The Puschelhockers, 2018 (acquired by the Art Gallery of Ballarat), set on a custom made glass and steel table. Mobile Eyes, 2019, is a suspended mobile of the repeated motif, Mobile Eye from 1999, in itself a simple mobile form. The new mobile takes this original design into a traditional Calder-style mobile. The exhibition conveyed a sense of mastery over the objects’ forms and materials and, despite its simplicity, its success was in its very direct but whimsical address to the viewer. I have been researching forms of address that an artwork presents, referencing the late nineteenth century art historian, Alois Riegl, since my PhD (submitted in 2017). All works were designed to appeal to the homemaker – in scale and colour, which is operating on another level of enquiry, interior design and domestic style. The Mini Puschelhockers is based on the fluffy vanity stools of the 1950’s bedroom (the translation of puschelhocker from the German is ‘soft stool’).
Love Flower

Meade, J (https://www.mcclellandgallery.com/southern-way-mcclelland-commissions/, 2019)

I was awarded the Southern Way McClelland Commission 2018 and delivered the public sculpture in October 2019. This bi-annual Public Sculpture commission is a partnership between Southern Way (Plenary), the builders and owners of the Peninsula Link freeway in South-East metropolitan Melbourne and McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery in Langwarrin. It is one of the most well-known public sculpture commission in Victoria. The value of the commission in 2018 was $250,000 +GST. It is an open competitive round and I won the commission (from 67 entries) with my proposal, Love Flower. The sculpture is based on a dried agapanthus flower arrangement by Melbourne Sogetsu Ikebana practitioner, Emily Karanikolopolous, who I approached some years earlier after admiring an agapanthus arrangement of hers that I saw online. The 10-metre sculpture is cast in carbon fibre and painted white. The sculpture is two intertwining stems of the agapanthus with a flowering ball of filaments at the end of each stem. End-point fibre optics illuminate the tips of the filaments at night when the freeway lights turn on. The commission was an opportunity to work large scale and the concept was to bring out into public space an element of domestic interior styling (an ongoing area of research). Monumental sculpture often imposes itself upon its site and I wanted to generate a softer, indeed, a more feminine tone that was generous to the local Langwarrin residents. After four years it will be sited permanently in the grounds of McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery.

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