Tracks of Modernism
Product Details
A rudimentary vehicle moves across the land, and a seabird flies above. This journey leaves a mark, shaping the landscape. A four-wheeled cart evokes the past or a mechanised future. The seabird follows an ancient path with its inner compass how do we respect this? Our impact on nature is ever present.
83 cm x 55 cm x 59 cm
Steel, wood, copper
Benjamin Loaring creates artworks that explore narratives within the remote West Australian landscape.
His scenes and characters from this natural world are compromised by mechanical and industrial features. With a sensitive approach to materials and making, Ben creates figures that exist in the spiritual world, surviving against modernist ideals of progress.
A concern for the natural world, an observation or a personal memory may serve as an inspiration to begin the artmaking process. Ben is driven by the desire to push his artistic and fabrication skills further Ben uses photography and drawing as tools to explore the natural world, with his ideas and concepts expressed more fully through painting and sculpture.
Bens sculptural construction process has evolved and developed over time to incorporate a favoured selection of materials and techniques and unique processes. Using collected bespoke natural pieces of wood and small steel offcuts, he creates winged and figurative forms.
Loaring has works held in the public collection of the Shire of Derby West Kimberley, the Elizabeth and Lloyd Horn Collection and numerous private collections throughout Australia and internationally.
