geoff overheu

dreamers

17 august - 15 september 2012

Geoff Overheu's current work deals solely with the figure. He sees his work as autobiographical; both familiar and ambiguous.

He lives his life straddling two worlds – the world of the farmer and the world of the artist – creating his sculptural artworks on his farming property in Gingin, Western Australia (about 90km outside of Perth).

He says of his work that it is "a romanticised and mythological version of an iconic image" - the man on the land, clad in his Driza-bone and Akubra hat. These figures are all titled Dreamers - Two dreamers hugging, One dreamer balancing, One dreamer crawling - all parched and blackened as if they are remnants of charred gum trees standing defiantly after a bushfire.

The titles make us think of the plight of farmers – living in small isolated communities and pitting their will against the whims of nature for their livelihood in a landscape that is politically, socially and culturally beyond the Metropolis.

Overheu places each of his iconic figures in a vulnerable position, balancing, rocking, dreaming, crawling and even hugging. Perhaps they cling together in a stoic and steadfast manner facing their adversities and finely balanced financial futures as nature creates changeable and unpredictable weather with good seasons peppered with drought, fire and floods.

Geoff Overheu has just been selected to participate in the upcoming inaugural $100,000 Mt Buller sculpture prize in Victoria. Dreamers is his eighth solo exhibition and he has participated in numerous group shows including Boundless at the Art Gallery of WA, the 2012 Sculpture Award at the University of Western Sydney, and the Directors Cut of the Blake Prize. Overheu graduated in 2004 with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts, and did his BA in Fine Arts at Curtin University in Perth.

 

Photos: Eva Fernandez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

installation shot
three figures dreaming plastic, animatronics, sand, steel, enamel paint 180 x 120 x 120cm 2012 $12,000	two dreamers hugging plastic, animatronics, sand, steel, enamel paint 180 x 70 x 55cm 2012 $8,000
one dreamer balancing plastic, sand, steel, enamel paint, wood 220 x 160 x 60cm 2012 $5,000	one dreamer sitting plastic, sand, steel, enamel paint 130 x 60 x 105cm 2012 $4,500
one dreamer crawling plastic, animatronics, sand, steel, enamel paint 185 x 190 x 85cm 2012 $4,500
one dreamer lying plastic, sand, steel, enamel paint, wood 90 x 140 x 140cm 2012 $4,500	one dreamer falling plastic, sand, steel, enamel paint, wood 190 x 160 x 160cm 2012 $4,500
installation shot