Three New England artists are set to feature at this year’s Sculptures in the Garden, the popular outdoor exhibition returning to Mudgee for its 16th year. Armidale sculptor Francois Jaggi and Warialda’s Kerry Cannon are among a record 134 Australian artists selected as finalists, while Walcha’s Stephen King returns as head of the judging panel and will showcase a sculpture outside the competition.
The event runs from Saturday, 10 October to Sunday, 25 October, with around 300 works on display and the highest prize pool in the competition’s history, worth more than $60,000. An artists and members opening evening will be held at Rosby Vineyard and Gallery on Friday, 9 October, ahead of the public opening the following day.
Entrants have come from Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia, with 26 artists exhibiting at the event for the first time. High-profile names on this year’s finalist list include Barbara Licha, Michael Vaynman, Mela Cooke, Paul Bacon, Maksim Kuznetcov and Bridget Whitehead.
A new addition this year is My Kingdom for a Horse, a hands-on community sculpture project where visitors will work alongside professional artists to build a herd of life-sized horse sculptures over the course of the 16-day festival.
Mr Jaggi has exhibited at Sculptures in the Garden every year since 2019 and won the MWRC/SIG Acquisition Prize in 2022 with his piece Stallion, made from paddock wire salvaged from bushfire-affected farmland near Wollomombi. This year he is bringing two new works, both made from 316 stainless steel.
“One is called Dancing Crane and the other is called Steel Together, both are made from 316 stainless steel,” said Mr Jaggi.
He said he liked to use reclaimed materials where he could, though it was not always possible.
“I’ve got a few, but it’s not always available, so I just buy some steel from the hardware,” he said.
“Some people are very generous, they always give you a piece of metal or whatsoever. It’s very nice for the people to do that because they’re recycling it too.”
Mr Jaggi, who lives on a bush property near Armidale, said the local wildlife was a constant source of ideas.
“We’re a bit in the bush in Armidale here, and that gives you good inspiration. We’ve got heaps of kangaroos and a lot of birds,” he said.
While artists have freedom over what they submit, Mr Jaggi said the work still needed to connect with visitors.
“You can do whatever you want, but it still has to be appealing to the people,” he said.
He said the scale of the event, now showing around 300 works, remained impressive.
“It’s huge, but they’ve got a very nice spot. It’s a very nice family to work with,” he said.
Walcha sculptor Stephen King opened Sculptures in the Garden in 2019 and returns this year as head of the judging panel, a role he said had come about after years of encouragement from event organiser Kay.
“I’ve always had a bit of an association with Mudgee. Kay’s been hassling me for many a year to be involved in Sculptures in the Garden, and once you start, you’re not allowed to stop. She’s a great taskmaster,” Mr King said.
Although not competing, Mr King will showcase a horse sculpture named Bert outside the competition, made to tie in with the My Kingdom for a Horse community sculpture project.
“His name’s Bert. He’s a horse, and we thought it would be appropriate with the project they’re doing,” he said.
Bert was modelled on a real horse from Mr King’s property, a thoroughbred he used to study skeletal structure and muscle. Mr King said the horse had lived a long life before he died.
“He was a thoroughbred, and he nearly made it to 40,” he said.
Mr King said most of his sculptures were made from timber sourced from his own farm.
“I’ve ended up just being a timber sculptor. I’ve got a reasonable clump of stringybark, and I pretty much know where every fallen tree is,” he said.
Judging a field as large and diverse as this year’s, he said, was not always straightforward.
“Sometimes it kind of judges itself. You’re looking for strong contemporary work, and more often than not it jumps at you as you arrive,” Mr King said.
“With this sort of show, all three judges have got to agree, so it can happen that the best work might miss out, which is something I hope doesn’t happen.”
Sculptor Kerry Cannon, founder of Ceramic Break Sculpture Park at Warialda, is also among this year’s finalists and has exhibited at Sculptures in the Garden between six and eight times. He said events like it were rare in the Australian art calendar.
“There aren’t too many places to show your art like that. They get a big crowd in, they get good media, and they also have acquisition things happening,” Mr Cannon said.
This year he is bringing two bronze works, including a piece based on a cult cartoon character.
“I think he’s pretty cute. He’s got checkered pants on, that’s why he’s called a Checkered Demon,” he said.
Mr Cannon said his sculptures usually grew out of a broader story.
“I do a story, and then I do the artwork for the story, kind of like a three-dimensional comic,” he said.
Having also exhibited internationally, Mr Cannon said regional events compared well to shows overseas.
“They’re very professional, and Mudgee is very similar. They’re very well organised,” he said.
Mr King, who has been instrumental in building Walcha’s Open Air Gallery into one of the most sculpture-dense public collections in the country, is also working on a project linking Bendemeer, Woolbrook and Walcha for visitors.
“We’re working on a link between Bendemeer, that’s on the highway, a bit of a dying town, and Woolbrook and Walcha, so there’s a connection off the highway. It’s called Nest, New England Sculpture Track,” he said.
He said cultural tourism could help sustain small towns in the region.
“People who are interested in the cultural part of tourism usually spend more time and spend more money, so attracting them is not a bad idea,” Mr King said.
“They won’t know it’s a nice place to live until they do a few trips. You need something to get them there initially, and there it is.”
Tickets for Sculptures in the Garden are on sale now. For more information, visit the website.
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