Sanne Mestrom's sculptures invite play
Known for voluptuous sculptures of the female body that are a nod to Henry Moore and the Modernists, Sann茅 Mestrom defies听their single-minded gaze by creating nudes that draw audiences to not simply look but to interact with them, through their playfulness, practicality, and warmth.
Mestrom鈥檚 sculpture, The Offering (Nyotaimori Reclining Nude) 2022, embodies the core of her research, which seeks to incorporate 鈥榩lay鈥� into a socially engaged practice. Mestrom鈥檚 current research investigates ways that art in public places can become critically integrated, inclusive, and create interactive spaces.
Although brutalist in appearance, the motherly figure with its horizontal orientation, draws audiences in and invites them to touch, sit at and sit on. In doing so, Mestrom rewrites current definitions of 鈥榩lay鈥� as relating to the physical and experiential conditions of 鈥榩lace鈥�. Creating a sculpture that responds to the audience鈥檚 movement through it and interaction with it, softens the separation of art and everyday life; it is through this 鈥榮oftness鈥� that playable art听has the potential to open up a space to escape pre-determined ideas.
For me, the reclining nude body, that鈥檚 a gift. She鈥檚 not submissive, she鈥檚 not being objectified by men. She鈥檚 sharing herself with women, with children, with partners, with lovers 鈥� she鈥檚 giving and hopefully being given to.
Mestrom鈥檚 work offers a new way to experience art; a relationship is created between the viewer and the artwork; it moves us from simple voyeur to sitter to become part of the artwork. It requires the day-to-day lived experience and presence of the viewer to communicate with the sculpture, to alter their preconceived ideas of what it should be, and to engage in a physical way.
Mestrom, a senior lecturer and practice-led research at Sydney College of the Arts has work held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artbank, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Shepparton Art Museum, and private collections internationally. She is currently the recipient of an Australia Research Council funding scheme and has been both recipient and finalist of numerous awards, grants and prizes.
Main Image: The Offering (Nyotaimori Reclining Nude) 2022 with artist Sann茅 Mestrom
Photography: Mark Pokorny
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