Sculpture stands tall

Bridgetown artist Kim Perrier’s sculpture Carbonature Series 2020 has won the Viewers Choice Award at the South Western Times Art 2020 exhibition.

Held at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, the award was announced on May 21.

Mr Perrier said winning the award was like winning the greatest award of the exhibition.

“When you win the people’s choice award it says a lot about the quality of the work and how much people appreciated it,” he said.

The piece is part of a series of sculptures that Mr Perrier has made, but does not have an individual name.

“Rather than putting a name on any sculpture, I’ve continued to just sequence it,” he said.

“Primarily because every piece has a spiritual element, a spiritual feeling to it somehow and I don’t want to really put a name on it, because it takes away from it I think, so I call it by the style’s name.”

Mr Perrier said the sculpture was made by taking a mould of a live subject and then packing the mould with charcoal, before affixing it to the wooden backing piece.

“It’s a style of sculpture I discovered, or invented and I called that style Carbonature because it was made out charcoal out of the bush,” he said.

Bunbury Regional Art Gallery director Joanne Baitz praised Mr Perrier’s sculpture.

“I loved the work, I thought it was a beautifully crafted, textural and evocative piece of work,” she said.

Mr Perrier sits on the committee of the Blackwood Creatives, a group that promotes artistic endeavours in the town.

Bridgetown residents might have the chance to enjoy more Carbonature soon, with large statues being prepared for a planned sculpture garden.