ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
Public art is where it where it all began, and public art continues to be a primary endeavour. Tom is interested in freely accessible art in public places, streets and parks. This is art that anyone can engage in the any way they choose. This does not mean the art produced any less complex, and in fact good public art should be multilayered, so as a two year old toddler is as engaged as their highly educated grandparents; each is seeing an entirely different aspect of the same artwork.
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Is wilderness a public place?
What influences the form of public art about a wilderness place?
In 2008 Tom completed a Master of Arts (Art in Public Space) with Distinction ~ Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). This was titled: 'Is wilderness a public place? What influences the form of public art about a wilderness place?' One project within this was String Theory. ‘String Theory’ was an experiment in creating temporary planar surfaces in a wilderness environment. This was a way of representing a “slab”, a horizontal surface you would normally only see in architecture. Another was Rudolf, a play on public places in wilderness environments.
TRIG POINT
Trig Point is a reflection on perception; and therefore, draws on traditions of phenomenology. I initially imagined drawing within a giant transparent bubble, sketching the reality I perceive on the inside of this bubble. As an artwork this would provide a 3D window from a single point of reference. In many ways this is to say that my visual perception aligns with that of 'Google Street View'. Trig Point is triangular, representing trigonometric methods of survey. Think of wilderness navigation - If lost, look for three features in the landscape that you can identify on a map, and trace back the bearings from these points. The ‘blind spot’ here is that tracing a bearing by eye is never perfect, and the three lines traced on a map do not intersect in one place, but they locate you, somewhere, anywhere in a triangle. The 'blind spot' in Trig Point is in the middle. I have not sketched, not represented the place I stand. This could also represent the blind spot where our optic nerve connects to our retina; the portion of our field of vision we use our brain to predict and create.
Selection of older work
Tom exhibited as an artist at multiple Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions in Sydney from 2000 to 2003. Pictured below are his early public artworks including ‘Tangle Bondi to Tamarama’ - 2000, ‘Block of Flats’ - 2001 and ‘Fence’ 2001. Also photographed are the artworks in Tasmania, Byron Bay, and later in Darwin with ‘Taming the Frond’ 2012 .