PETER BAUHUIS | VESSELS & HEADS
Main exhibition space

In this group of vessels and jewellery, Bauhuis examines states of being both physical and metaphorical, and the slippages that occur within. From the unpredictable confluence of metal alloys to his philosophical play with dubious archaeological narratives, Bauhuis's work is informed by the uncertain spaces between the possible and impossible, history and myth.

Through March and April this year, Bauhuis has been in residence at Fundere Foundry in Sunshine, in Melbourne's west. This has been an immersive period of experimentation and collaboration with the foundry team and has allowed Peter to push beyond the bounds of the artist's studio. High-stakes processes of development and trial casting have resulted in the largest objects the artist has ever produced. This sense of risk and immediacy is inherent in the vessels on display, with their swirling patterns and occasional, unexpected protrusions testifying to the inherent chance in that moment when liquids, colliding and melding, become solid.

In these latest works, vessels appear to split, like a cell cleaving in two; the notion of doubling playing out explicitly in their form as well as in the colours of two alloys mixing. Peter brings decades of technical experience and intuition to bear, making each new work a unique balancing act of mastery and happy accident. As Martin Schmidt writes, "time and again, [Bauhuis] has transcended and extended the technical possibilities of the lost wax casting method."

Bauhuis works with a selective library of forms - tri-legged, squat or tall vessels; rustic chains, 'blobs' reminiscent of fungi or stones, sometimes with pareidolic faces appearing and winking at us. In his jewellery, Bauhuis often builds painstaking, complex internal structures through which a molten metal will flow to form an outer skin. He then leaves these structures in place like fragile skeletons. To make the chains - in a bravura act of wax modelling, he builds the wax chain links around a delicate 'tree', so the entire necklace, when each link is cut from its individual sprue, falls away, fully linked. In his recent Fly series, intricate wing patterns are replicated in wax, then metal. Regardless of the method, Bauhuis reveals the characteristics of his materials in an entirely fresh way.

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KATRIN FEULNER | SILENT SEQUENCE
Project Space

This exhibition features pieces from two major series; CUT and CYCLE, as well as new works developed in the last several years. After a decade of working mostly with found steel objects and using slow hand-processes - cutting, filing, re-configuring shapes, flame-colouring - Katrin has recently begun to include more traditionally valuable materials such as gold, silver and bronze, as well as techniques such as powder coating and casting.

Fans of Katrin's pared-back, muscular style will find much to love in this intimate selection of pieces. The viewer or the wearer will recognize a certain similarity to previous works and at the same time a new, 'silent sequence' that did not exist in Katrin’s work before. Their directness and simplicity signals the maturity of a maker who has a natural fluency and confidence with her metier.

Peter Bauhuis catalogue Katrin Feulner catalogue