Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Little circus surprises

My life has many links to circus, which is guiding my new body of work. I have found inspiration in the research into our family history in which I discover I am (distantly) related to the Sole Brothers Circus (an early Australian circus troupe). In another life Fox and I were part of the People's Circus which toured in NZ in the early 1980s (we were going to make our fortunes, and I think we ended up with $22 each! But had a fantastic time).

In Sydney last week I saw Circus Oz, and marvelled at their skills, humour and wonderful attitude towards the world. I love Cirque d'Soleil. Having been involved in training people in circus skills many years ago with an amazing community artist Ian Reece, as well as introducing teachers to use circus as a teaching tool with their students, I feel proud to see the gorgeous young people graduating from the circus training (now Australia has an Institute of Circus Arts). A tradition that must not be lost.

So my new work will be big and small sculptures, and the working title is "It's all about balance". Which also has a few layers of metaphor about the world, life, the universe ...

Here are a couple of exploratory small sculptures waiting for a bisque firing.


3 comments:

Anna said...

I love these Ellen, can't wait to see how you progress with them! What an interesting family history :^)

Ellen Appleby said...

Thanks Anna - I am starting the larger ones which are a little more challenging, in fact a lot more challenging...

lynny said...

what a great title to a wonderful new body of work- they look great!