Kirsteen Pieterse

Kirsteen Pieterse Where You Stand 1 - 29 June 2019

© Utopia Art Sydney

The works in Where You Stand represent the landscape as I see it now.

Filtered, processed, controlled, interfered with, yet still beautiful.

As an artist dealing with landscape, this body of work represents a shift in my practice towards embracing the softer material of plywood with more focus on surface and volume, somewhat away from a sustained exploration of line, plane, and the play of light across my sculptures.

These solid forms made from plywood, my Construction Timber Mountains, are very ‘present’ and opaque, as opposed to being airy, light and seemingly ephemeral, as my steel and acrylic work has previously striven to be.

As a formalist sculptor I notice a shift from primarily modelling and assembling to ‘carving’. The reality of not being able to ‘undo’ the action, the making of the plywood mountains, makes sense to me in relation to the ideas driving the work.

Kirsteen Pieterse, 2019

cat 1. Undermine, 2019, ink on rice paper mounted on Chinese paper scroll, 263 x 51 cm

cat 2. Reverent, Silent, 2018, aluminium, 35 x 260 x 7 cm

cat 3. Replica, 2019, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 57 x 108 x 35 cm

cat 4. Residue, 2019, ink on rice paper mounted on Chinese paper scroll, 242 x 51 cm

cat 5. Construction Timber Mountain #6, 2017, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 36 x 40 x 18 cm

cat 6. Construction Timber Mountain #3, 2017, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 54 x 45 x 24 cm

cat 7. Construction Timber Mountain #5, 2017, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 37 x 43 x 25 cm

cat 8. Construction Timber Mountain #10, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 50 x 88 x 56 cm

cat 9. Construction Timber Mountain #8, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 72 x 117 x 60 cm

cat 10. Construction Timber Mountain #12, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 43 x 39 x 21 cm

cat 11. Construction Timber Mountain #7, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 80 x 90 x 55 cm

cat 12. Construction Timber Mountain #11, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 49 x 48 x 43 cm

cat 13. Construction Timber Mountain #9, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 70 x 63 x 45 cm

cat 16. Construction Timber Mountain #2, 2017, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 35.5 x 32 x 20 cm

cat 17. Construction Timber Mountain #4, 2017, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 45 x 39 x 24 cm

cat 18. Construction Timber Mountain #13, 2018, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 41 x 44 x 23 cm

cat 14. Shoring, 2019, plywood offcuts and stainless steel, 51 x 103 x 23 cm

The materials used are as important to me as ever and the messages inherent in the association of the materials used are central to the work.

Construction plywood and stainless steel are my chosen materials for this body of work. Plywood has no place in the art world hierarchy, being a cheap, throwaway, ‘fake’ wood used primarily for lowly jobs such as shuttering for concrete. It’s everywhere around my Hong Kong studio - in skips, broken, ripped off of walls by crowbars and marked from concrete spillages and waste. My studio is surrounded by large mountains covered in bushes and teeming with wildlife, yet tunneled through and carved into by large scale engineering, infrastructure and construction. In these sculptures I’ve taken this lowly and leftover composite material and made a landscape from it, seemingly ageless and reminiscent of sandstone.

Stainless steel represents a hard and unyielding material, conceptually linked to contemporary architecture and the notion of the ‘indestructible’. The little minimal wedges easily support the substantial weight of the large plywood pieces. The Construction Timber Mountains are weighty but are lifted off the calm horizontal plane of the plinth by the wedges. This creates space and shadow underneath the solid volumes of the plywood, lending them a lightness but ultimately I feel they are an imposition and imply the plywood pieces are waiting to be moved.

Kirsteen Pieterse, 2019

cat 15. Edge of a Sky, 2019, aluminum, 57 x 84 x 18 cm

cat 19. Overgrown, 2019, ink on rice paper mounted on Chinese paper scroll, 187 x 52 cm

Kirsteen Pieterse Biography

Education 1993 – 1994 Master of Arts (Architecture), University of East London, England 1989 – 1993 Bachelor of Fine Art, First Class Honours, Glasgow School of Art Solo Exhibitions 2015 2013 2010 2007 2006

Scholar Stones - Interpretations - Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Holding Unknowns - Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Imminent - Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Still Point - Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Subside - Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Selected Group Exhibitions 2018 Sydney Contemporary 2018, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW 2017 Sydney Contemporary 2017, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW

Alternative Museum, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney

Human Rights Art Prize, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong 2016 Cornucopia, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney

Deconstructing Landscapes, Pimary, Tai Po, Hong Kong 2016,15,14,13,10, 06, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney 2015 Spring Exhibition, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Martin Browne Contemporary at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair

Shan Shui Painting as Sculpture, South Island Art Night, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

2015 Sculpture by the Sea Cottesloe, Perth, WA 2014 2014 Sculpture by the Sea Bondi, Sydney, NSW

The Gathering II, a survey of Australian sculpture - Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria

Heavy Metal: Sculpture from the permanent collection – Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

Sculpture at Scenic World - Blue Mountains, NSW 2013 Wonderworks - The Space, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

Birdbath - Utopia Art Sydney 2012 Storm Signal 8 - The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong 2011 Willoughby Sculpture Prize – finalist, Sydney

Suite - Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney

Wattle - Australian Art Survey, The Space, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong 2010 Dragon Garden - The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

Martin Browne Fine Art - at Melbourne Art Fair

Kirsteen Pieterse Biography - continued

Selected Group Exhibitions 2009

2008 2007

2006

2005 2004 2000 1999 1998

1995 1994

Re: constructions - The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong 3d x 5 - Bathurst Regional Gallery, NSW The Cat Street Gallery - at Hong Kong International Art Fair Helen Lempriere Sculpture Prize - (finalist exhibition) Melbourne Dobell Prize for Drawing - Art Gallery of NSW Autumn Catalogue - Martin Browne Fine Art Sydney ABN AMRO Emerging Art Award - ABN AMRO Sydney Martin Browne Fine Art - at Melbourne Art Fair Flaming Youth - Orange Regional Gallery, NSW Martin Browne Fine Art - at Art Sydney 06, Horden Pavilion National Sculpture Prize finalist - The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney, Winner Viewers’ Choice Prize, Sydney Cambridge Friends of Cambridge University Donated Drawings - University of Cambridge Art Gallery, UK Works on Paper - Gallery No.1, Repton, England Walkways and Partitions - Gallery No.1, Repton, England The Unhomely - Gallery No.1, Repton, England Sculpture at Tidal Basin II - Royal Victoria Dock, London Sculpture at Tidal Basin - Royal Victoria Dock, London

Kirsteen Pieterse Biography - continued Selected Biography 2017 Ian Findlay - “Deconstructing Landscapes”, World Sculpture News, Volume 23, No.1, Winter 2017 2015 Ian Findlay – “Pleasures of the Ephemeral”, World Sculpture News, Volume 21, No. 3, Summer

2015, p 46-50 2013 John McDonald, Integrity at any price, Sydney Morning Herald, 16-17 March, 2013, p. 12-13 2013 Gina Fairley, Kirsteen Pieterse, World Sculpture News, Volume 19, No.1, Winter, p.47-48 2012 Cristina Sanchez Kozyreva, Asthma and other wicked catalysts (Lighter Scheme), Pipeline,

Issue 26, Jan/Feb 2012, p.45 2010 Louise Schwartzkoff – Imminent, Sydney Morning Herald: Open Gallery, 6 – 7 February 2010, p. 14 2009 Kate Bryan - Deconstructing Landscape, World Sculpture News, Volume 15 No 4, p. 42 – 45, 2009 2009 Brad Hammond - 3d x 5, Artist Profile, Issue 09, p.102, 2009 2009 Dave Morgan – Fanfare Calendar, Prestige Hong Kong, November 2009, p. 40 2008 Gina Fairley - Kirsteen Pieterse, World Sculpture News, Vol 14, No1, Winter 2008 2006 Tracy Clement -Kirsteen Pieterse, Sculpture, September 2006 Vol 25 No 7 2006 Betsy Brennan “Bridge Builder” Vogue Living, May/June 2006, p. 87 2006 Janet Hayes ”Subside” Australian Art Review, Issue 10 March–June 2006, p. 17 2006 Tracey Clement ”SFX Appeal” Sydney Morning Herald: Metro, 3 – 9 February 2006, p. 23 2006 Deborah Cooke ”Subside” Sydney Morning Herald: Good Weekend, 11 February 2006 2006 Shaun Ellis “Model Citizen” Wentworth Courier, 8 February 2006 Commissions 2019 Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge, Shanghai International Airport 2018 The Deck, Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge, Hong Kong International Airport 2016 The Pier, Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge, Hong Kong International Airport Raffles Hotel, Shenzhen Bay, China 2012 L’Hotel Island South, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong 2009 Hyatt Regency, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong Awards 2008 Winner of Wyndham City Council Acquisitive Award, Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award 2008 Highly Commended, Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award 2004 Winner of Viewer’s Choice Award, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 1993 Winner of John Keppie Travel Scholarship, Glasgow School of Art

Kirsteen Pieterse Biography - continued Collections Cathay Pacific National Gallery of Australia Artbank University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK Wyndham City Council, VIC Bathurst Regional Gallery, NSW Suncorp Bank Westpac Bank Shun Tak Holdings Limited

Utopia Art Sydney 72 Henderson Rd Alexandria NSW 2015 Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900 email: art@utopiaartsydney.com.au www.utopiaartsydney.com.au © Utopia Art Sydney