Vicki Leigh | ART

Something like Sunshine

Sculptures for Gallery 550 Swan Street, Richmond

• finding joy • playfulness • potted gardens • sunflowers • reaching for the sun •

more about this work

I thought i’d give a little explanation of my sculptures for this exhibit and how i got here….

Thanks for visiting!

Artist.

A graphic designer and photographer, with a passionate side-hustle in sculpture and jewellery design, Vicki is a designer who loves to get hands-on as part of her design and development process. That’s where the ideas churn and techniques are refined and explored - in the showing up - the doing.

After 10+ years in design & packaging, then studying metal and silversmithing at NMIT in Melbourne, Vicki gained confidence in joining and working materials and gained an appreciation that skills take time to develop, getting to know how different materials can be formed and transformed using different manipulation techniques. While studying Vicki made and sold original silver and handmade pieces at St Kilda Market and during this time was inspired to inject colour and graphics into wearable art and jewellery at a time when it was still quite traditional, combining her creative influences of graphic art and jewellery design.

Sculptures.

As a resident of the Swan Street Artist Studios for the past 5 years, David Milne, has been a wonderful mentor and friend, encouraging Vicki’s work and inspiring her to create sculptural work that allows the freedom of size and dimensions, as opposed to the weight and size limitations of jewellery design.

Materials.

Along with resin, for this project I have been researching the re-purpose of domestic LPDE 4, PP 5 & HDPE 2 plastic lids. Learning properties in melting, shaping and fusing. My aim was to develop techniques and inspire the idea of re-using materials we have available to us (inspired by lockdown) in developing and designing new jewellery and homewares in creative ways.

Prototypes.

The other materials I have been researching include resin, which has been firmly established in the commercial homewares and slow-fashion jewellery scene by Australian designers for years. My ‘prototype’ pieces are currently in experimental phase, with a view to develop other designs to commercial standard, possibly objects for design, lighting and architecture (colourful quirky hardware designs).

One aspect I discovered around resin, was the ability to manipulate and bend during the curing process which lead to the wonderful spike shapes.

Design.

The design of the project was originally inspired by the 80’s Memphis Design period, particularly the pastel ‘gelato’ colour schemes, crazy use of shapes and colours in homewares and furniture design. It was a playful and joyful period of design that ignored rules and used abstract shapes, angles and graphic patterns.

Paul Klee and John Olsen also use colour and childlikeness to invoke joy and naivety in their work.

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