Artistic Support Materials
(To enlarge click on images)
Steam
2006
7,000 cast aluminium vegetable steamers, plate aluminum, steel, lighting, dimensions variable (each sphere ranges from 1.2 – 2.4 metres in diameter)
Steam was based on the studio work Fall 2 (shown on right) an earlier work made of original vegetable steamers.
Fall 2 was shown as part of my series Fallen in the inaugural exhibition Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary at the Museum of Art and Design(MAD) NYC, 2018. It was also exhibited in 2007 at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney in Smart works: Design and the Handmade.
Delphinus
2009
White bronze, elements 1m diameter to 2.4m diameter
Location: King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Consultant: Urban Art Projects
This was the first commission that I undertook with Urban Art Projects (UAP). UAP Shanghai and UAP New York are partners for this project (please see LOS). UAP wrote of Delphinus:
“Marcus’ sculptural practice of utilising distinctly mundane everyday domestic objects creates an aura of intimacy that stems from nostalgic memory and familiarity with in this case, the humble lemon squeezer. Marcus’ internally lit sculptures are positioned to match the Delphinus constellation documented by astronomer As-Sufi (Azophi) over 1000 years ago, and guide pedestrians through the Seacourt area.”
The small bronze component of Delphinus was later used as basis for Ascorbic (please see UAP URL). Working with an industrial ceramicist I used this existing mould to slip cast a large ceramic work. This led to a series of further ceramic works that I am continuing to develop.
Prototypes / Miniatures
2007 – 2011
plastic / SLC print, 5cm to 12cm diameter
The process leading up to fabrication and installation of Delphinus began in 2007 while I was in the USA. Renders were made from my sketches and these were then turned into 3D prototypes. These processes immediately promised new and exciting opportunities for studio works and I began producing these as small miniature works in their own right.
When I was invited to show at the Sea Foundation Netherlands, files were downloaded to a 3D printing company in the Netherlands and sent directly to the exhibition. Further small prototypes/miniatures have been exhibited in various locations including Shared Visions (Poland).
Re-Entry
2010
Location: The Atrium, Federation Square, Melbourne
Commissioned as part of Fed Square’s Occupy program, an ongoing series of site-specific installations, the work continues the artists’ practice of collecting various types of aluminium cookware, and reshaping it into domes, spheres, clusters, and other serial forms reminiscent of 60’s utopian architecture. Internally-lit, and ambitious in scale, Marcus’ suspended sculptures playfully appear as if a small storm of space debris has re-entered the atmosphere
Trickle
2009
Location: George St, Brisbane, Australia
Material: Aluminium kitchenware
Size: variable
Trickle is an installation of 14 ‘stalactites’ and ‘stalagmites’ made by layering more than 3,000 found aluminium saucepans, saucepan lids, biscuit tins and pudding bowls.
Khrushchev + Nixon
2013
plastic, brass, SLC print
15 x 15 x 30 cm
Nixon and Khrushchev expounded political ideologies at the now famous 1959 Moscow ‘kitchen debate’ at an exhibition using a ‘typical’ American kitchen as a bravura demonstration of technological and social superiority. Since that time, centres and peripheries of material production and technologies have changed dramatically.
One component of Khrushchev + Nixon is assembled using knobs of saucepan lids collected over 20 years, the patina of use etched into the point of connection between hand and lid. While the other component is fresh from the printer, delivered to the doorstep in a smart new box. The identity of who represented by each piece is now longer clear.
Sift
2015
Location: Tianfu Sales Centre, Chengdu Heneng
Material: Aluminium
Size: elements 1.2m diameter
Consultant: UAP
Clockwise from upper left:
Pail, Range
2018
each vitreous enamelled on steel, 38 cm diameter
Plant
2018
Location: Gasworks, Brisbane
vitreous enamelled steel, LED internal lighting, each element 1.5 diameter
Plant installed in late 2018 is my most recent public artwork. I was able to work directly on these pieces to produce the desired vitreous enamel surfaces and to produce the smaller studio works. I am developing a further series of works using this process and industry network.
Donna Marcus: Sluice BOAA 2018
Gold (Yellow) Gold (White) Gold (Rose) 2018
Aluminium, dimensions variable, 103 x 227 x 21 cm each
These works are constructed from identical ‘Dolly Varden’ cake tins placed in hexagonal forms. Using only retrieved 1960s aluminium beakers, each piece is ‘coloured’ or ‘lit’ using the strong reflective qualities of anodised aluminum.
This work was developed from a much earlier series of colour studies including After Albers. I plan make a large interior public artwork in the future developing this idea.
Installation View
Detail 1. Gold (Yellow)
Detail 2. Gold (Yellow)
Registration
2018
Aluminium, 90 x 220 x 6 cm
Left to right:
Grip
2013
30 x 30 x 4 , plastic, copper
Carboniferous
2013
66 x 21 x 3 cm, plastic, aluminium, steel
Scale
2017
20 x 25 x 3 cm, plastic, aluminium
Carboniferous, Grip and Scale are part of an ongoing series of small works that are made from a huge trove of unused knobs and handles retrieved from the thousands of saucepan lids. The bulk of this material came from my large scale public artwork Trickle. Critical mass has reunited lost archetypes, weird relations and rare beauties, often overlain with the optimistic prudence of improvised repairs and patina of generational use. The works draw upon the somber quality of Victorian black jet mourning jewelry and continue my interest in the extremes of scale and the relationship between the miniature and the gigantic.