August Meeting - talk and AGM

Prominent Melbourne sculptor Damien Vick was the featured guest at the August 14 meeting and AGM of the ASV.

Damien realized as a teenager that he wanted to work in a creative field, and although he had the ability and aptitude for a range of academic directions, he focused his energy on art and design. After completing his VCE he completed a degree in graphic design but soon became tired of the medium, wanting to work more with his hands.

Night Owl Screen

Damien took a brief hiatus in India for a few months and, upon his return encountered significant trouble finding a design job. He took this as an opportunity to pursue a different path and soon completed the NEIS scheme, learned how to weld and developed some skills in 3d modelling software. In his mid 20’s he and 7 other creative artists took over a warehouse in Northcote where they all lived and worked for 5 years until the local council evicted them. During this time Damien fully realized his love of working with wood and steel, and realized the truth in the saying, that if you spend your life doing what you love you will never feel you have done a days work.

Damien soon realized the strength of his need to work in a physical medium,

"While I identified that I wanted to create sculpture," he said "I was hungry to develop the skills required to manipulate the materials that resonated with me (primarily steel and timber), rather than re-enter further education. Initially I was happy seeking projects that granted me the ability to develop my skills and these often contained a functional aspect, such as lighting, privacy screens and furniture. However my passion for sculpture has always been the driving force behind these endeavours and now that I have a handle on the techniques, possibilities and procedures involved in using the materials that lie at the core of my practice, I am engaging more with the conceptual side of the art form."

Moment - work in progress

In 2009 Damien was commissioned to produce a large privacy screen on a first floor balcony, which he cut out of aluminium by hand. (See pic) Some 2 or 3 years later one of the managers of a property developer remembered this particular and asked him to put in a proposal for an artistic façade on a new development in Sturt Street South Melbourne. "This was a tremendous challenge and opportunity, which I felt I was ready for and I won the commission " said Damien " I created literally hundreds of models and variations before I decided on the shape, which I believed would convey an inherent truth and resonate on an emotional and intellectual level. This project, which I call the "Moment", occupied me fully for the next 12 months. I was fortunate in being able to use the Fundere foundry to lay out and fabricate the work, (see pic in factory) which was 20 times bigger than anything I had handled before. Moment was constructed with 40 modules attached to 9 pieces of frame. Each piece had to be installed in a particular order such that it could be bolted to the frame and the neighbouring modules. The whole thing was 8 meters in diameter and weighed 3 tons, and had to be fixed 5 meters off the ground, backlit with 18 lights." ( See pic) Moment has given Damien the experience and confidence to seek further large scale projects. And feels he is ready to play the "art game".

Moment by day

Damien is passionate in his feeling that every sculpture he creates has to have an integrity of it’s own. It has to encapsulate some truth within, he says. Many of the pieces that he likes the most, are not the ones that achieve ready sale. He would not be the only sculptor to have a back yard full of unsold favourite pieces.

Report by Gordon Robertson

The AGM 2013

Reports and the agenda had been circulated prior to the meeting and were received and accepted without amendment. The 2012 committee was re-elected unopposed excepting for the resignations of Monica Mauer Jan and Suzanne Kaldor.

Discussion dealt with how we might nurture helpers for our various activities. This could be by dividing work into smaller individual tasks and by enabling teams to work together. Mention was also made of the slow progress with the website - we expect to have an announcement on that matter soon.