JASON WATERHOUSE — Oigall Projects

Across the span of his practice, sculptor Jason Waterhouse has consistently explored the form, perception and inherent significance of everyday objects, materials and commonplace cultural signifiers. Crafting detailed sculptures that appear impossibly realistic, Waterhouse employs simulacrum to exquisite effect, surreptitiously overthrowing the order of things with elements of abstraction and his use of industrial materials. What emerges from this process is not only a fascinatingly crafted object, inherently surreal and curious, but a static performance of sorts; one that hinges on the involvement of the audience and their instinct to invest something of their own personal experience and perception. Facsimile as a powerful prompt for nostalgia.

Waterhouse’s latest body of work traces subtle but resonant emotional narratives through an exploration of heaviness/lightness and the contrasting associations between found and made objects. Directly cast from bronze and incorporating steel, a selection of natural plant materials foraged from his home in the Daylesford area undergo an almost alchemical transformation. Seemingly delicate, decomposing, lace thin and brittle, these sculptures disrupt our sense of reality. In comparison to previous works that have been painted and manipulated to enhance the impact of illusion, these pieces are conspicuously left raw to reveal their metal bodies, no less impossibly realistic or impressively crafted. Perhaps this is a nod to the contrasting relationship between Waterhouse’s leafy home and his industrial studio space in Sunshine, the push and pull that that this regular journey facilitates. Perhaps this raw treatment captures the feeling of being stripped bare and made emotionally vulnerable, a sense of exposure that we can all identify with.

Importantly, what appears fragile and seemingly light is deceptively solid and heavy. Waterhouse describes how making this series of sculptures he wanted to address personal feelings of emotional weight and heaviness and contrastingly, a parallel sense of lightness or elation. The buttressed steel supports that hold and frame some of these pieces also add to the illusion of significant burden, while suggesting an answering response of relief and care. The idea of ‘hold’ becomes a reinforcing element in conveying this delicate psychological narrative, embracing dynamic meanings. Not only does it relate to an interrupted state of existence, of being held or suspended in place, it also suggests the act of grasping, something tactile and physical. In this way, Waterhouse applies mimicry and materiality to provoke sense memories and invite divergent responses.

We are not only prompted to investigate these objects, considering their origins - how and why they came to be - but we are ultimately invited to consider the forged meanings they contain, which are open-ended and myriad. Whether this be associations to environmental issues or questions of place and belonging, a commentary on production and consumption, reflections on our collective pastimes and even an observation on the way we live. Ultimately, according to Waterhouse, this is entirely dependant on the audience, his fascinating and beautifully intricate sculptures finding fulfilment in the individual gaze and experience of each viewer that encounters them.

Words by Zachary Calleja