‘On the surface, Glen Clarke fabricates large objects out of small multiples. As David Hansen put it so well, though a device which he calls ‘serial accumulation’, Glen Clarke has for well over a decade ‘applied this device to a variety of forms…: 14,000 clothes pegs to make a stack of plumbing pipes from the back of a builders truck; 5,500 wooden school rulers to make a dingy for convicts and refugees: 5,000 pairs of chopsticks to make three tyres.
Glen Clarke has brilliantly fused together the manufactured feel of Deconstruction with the emotions of Asia and holds it all together with what I call an ‘Australian Boundary Rider’ aesthetic. He has recently become fascinated- in a very human rather than military way- with explosions, particularly those caused by landmines in Vietnam, Iraq and Africa.’
Exert from essay by Dr Peter Hill, August 2008
‘The work is part of ongoing investigations into the changing nature of space. Previous works on paper have focused upon “spaces once occupied”, voids, bomb craters, locations of historical events and situations. Now in this new work the gaze has shifted to a more specific frozen moment, such as the erasing of space via a scrutiny of matter itself. Many of these events and moments are simple representations of the demolition of UXO’s in the Indochina region’
Clarke April 2009
Glen Clarke was the winner of the last National Sculpture Prize in 2006, since then he has exhibited widely throughout Australia and overseas. For the Last few years Glen has been hard at work clearing land mines in Vietnam, this body of work directly references these experiences, this show will be made up of a number of sculptural works and video.