Angus Wilson
Queensland Artist, Agriculturalist and Public Art Philanthropist, Angus Wilson forms a symbiotic relationship between his life, his community and his art. Completing a Bachelor of Design Studies he returned home to live and work on the family farm near Goondiwindi where he has established his practice which celebrates community through the arts.
Angus began designing, engineering and installing large-scale sculptural works to offset prolonged periods of drought. He repurposes and recontextualises significant agricultural flotsam and jetsam and found objects to create unique interpretations of place. His quirky and sometimes whimsical juxtaposition of past and present, often makes iconic references to personal and or historic narratives.
Many donated works enhance places and spaces along the Goondiwindi Art and Sculpture Trail. Angus’ philanthropic contribution to the arts as president of Lanescape were acknowledged in 2022 when he was awarded the Rotary ‘Community Services Award’ for his dedication to Art and Tourism.
Tree Of Life
The Tree Of Life fabricates the ironic juxtaposition of emergence versus restriction. Vascular-like, entangled steel branches, leaf-like tillage points, and an imposing rock entwined with sinuous foreboding tree roots, highlight the ironic and discordant relationship between the emergence of life, and struggle for survival amidst challenging conditions. A dual metaphor of life and hope interwoven with struggle and opposition is literally cultivated through the assemblage of significant found agricultural objects. Processes of engineering, welding and installation on a massive scale seed a universal message symbolising the challenges of survival.
What sparked the idea for the work you are exhibiting at SWELL this year?
We installed an image of ‘The Tree of Life’ as a laser cut out sheet over our BBQ in our house renovations. I then thought I could make a sculpture using this image & so the idea took hold.
What’s something people might not realise about the process behind your work?
The ‘The Tree of Life’ is made from ReInforcing Bar that is up to 28 mm thick & this involved a lot of heating to bend as my pipe bender broke trying to bend the Reo bar in my farm workshop. Also the leaves are from the farm & are cultivating points used for tilling the soil.
What role does location or environment play in your sculptures?
Not only acquiring the leaves from our family farm but ‘The Tree Of Life’ also shows the challenge of how life on the land can be in certain times.
Is there a moment or memory that shaped you as an artist?
My mother was an artist & would often use different mediums in her works. She would hold clay sculpture workshops in our farm wool shed annually bringing in a talented professional clay sculpture teacher.
What keeps you coming back to sculpture as a form of expression?
I like the bold & grand scale that sculpture presents, using skills I have learnt on the farm. The challenge that totally different mediums & techniques used in each sculpture provide. The use of MIG welders, Oxy-Acetylene, plasma cutters & other power tools that I have learned to use over my farming years.
If you could install your work anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
It would be in the town of Goondiwindi.
I am president of a local art group ‘Lanescape Goondiwindi’ thats vision is to bring public art into the region to promote the arts and culture & increase the liveability of the Goondiwindi area
Instagram @anguswilson_art
Come and see for yourself at SWELL Sculpture Festival, Pacific Parade, Currumbin 12th – 21st September.