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Stephen Colwell
Stephen Colwell, Flanders Poppys 2009, acrylic on canvas
Launceston artist Stephen Colwell has been a compulsive collector of disused and abandoned objects since an early age. Colwell says that this compulsion to collect is derived from his concern around land issues and the environment. Irrespective of where he finds them – the tip, the roadside, abandoned buildings - he can’t stand to see useful objects wasted, even if their original intended use has expired. The objects that draw a particular fascination for him are those with unique or captivating textures, colours or shapes, however it is not just aesthetic concerns that direct his choice of objects; their history also plays a part.
While he engages with multiple mediums in his practice – the exhibited work Flanders Poppies is an example of his painting - Colwell’s fascination with the found object has directed his attention mostly toward sculptural work. Using a method that draws on folk-art traditions, Colwell reconfigures these unrelated and widely varying objects into a coherent, yet still noticeably heterogeneous whole. There is a tension in his work between the discrete objects and the overall assemblages from which they are constructed.
There is also a sense of playful mysticism and other worldliness surrounding Colwell’s sculpture that is derived from the intuitive method used to construct the work. Colwell does not predetermine how he will use the objects when he collects them, instead assembling them by responding to their shape, colour and texture. His use of severed doll parts for example, instead of appearing gruesome or macabre, seems exploratory and playfully ironic. In Sheva, the use of unexpected materials to form a religious artefact seems to communicate the idea that religious inspiration can be found in the most unexpected of places; that sanctity can be bestowed upon even the most humble or banal object.
In 2008 Colwell had his first solo show at the Arts Alive artspace, an artist-run-initiative in Launceston. Entitled Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It, the exhibition consisted of over 50 of his sculptures.