SPACE: 1
William Christensen

Exhibition dates. 12 - 23 Jan 2022
Opening night. Thu 13 Jan 2022, 6 - 8.30pm

In an ocean of reproduction, solace can be found in the entropy that follows. The degradation of materials and the moment that we catch them, observe and palpate them is a precious thing. But it is not rare.

William Magnus Christensen is a sculptor and furniture maker who grew up in the coastal town of Walyalup, of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, otherwise known as Fremantle, Western Australia. Corrosive salt spray reduced industrial monuments to skeletal forms and beds of limestone are the foundations and the walls of the architecture that surrounded him. His work inverts these landscapes; mooring lines hanging from a foundation as if captured in free-fall; industrial forms that are encouraged to rust from plants that reclaim them; a tangle of abandoned steel.

His works are a combination of careful planning and free-form spontaneity, a rebellion against the simplified forms of mass production and an ode to the pre-raphaelites. Both mimicking natural complexity and borrowing it, the works are rich in texture and detail and are an attempt to cherish the unseen labour that exists beneath objects. Balancing the perceived opulence of polished stone with steel from his own work-benches that have seen countless hours of cuts, scrapes and gouges resulting in an unthinking abstract impression. The tension between materials is paralleled by that of the forms: tangling, busy assemblages act as counterweight to a simple plane; a polished surface. Physical functionality also plays a more subtle role, bringing the viewer closer, interacting with the surfaces and, in the end, allowing for a contemplation. They are pensive objects.

Exhibition view