Image: Gus Clutterbuck, Shelter (detail), 2020, ink, gouache, watercolour, tea stains, giclee print on etching paper, 110 x 100cm. Image courtesy the artist
Sticky Drawings
Gus Clutterbuck
Modbury Hospital and SpARC
27 November 2023 – 20 March 2024
Sticky Drawings series were made during the strange days of isolation and quarantine in 2020, with the outside world locked down, our domestic world was engulfed in the struggle with my son’s Eating Disorder. We experienced the sense of isolation accompanying Anorexia Nervosa, within the isolation of the global pandemic.
My son has always collected sticks and twigs and moved these in his hands to create patterns or stories imagined. These ordinary and ever-present objects became symbolic of his presence, and the sticks depicted in these artworks are drawn from his actual collection.
These works begin as miniature drawings on discarded papers and are then were printed at large scale to produce the final product. I use the motif of my son’s many collected “sticks” to explore our ongoing journey to recovery, which engenders, resilience, persistence, family unity across two homes.
Sticks can build a fire, make a shelter, and support a forest canopy.
The distorted beauty myth of the modern age urges us to be “stick figure “thin.
These “Sticky” drawings contemplate the big ideas in small things.
– Gus Clutterbuck, 2023
Artist Bio
Gus Clutterbuck is a mid-career artist who embraces risk and experimentation which keeps his work fresh and constantly evolving. His work is inspired by direct immersion in place, experience, personal narratives and the potential of broken/discarded things to give insights into our culture. This creative vision is expressed through multiple media including ceramics, drawing and photography.
Clutterbuck exhibits both nationally and internationally, having presented two successful solo shows with MEOU Art in Shanghai, “Shards”(2015) and “Falling”(2018), as well as undertaking annual residencies in Jingdezhen, China (until 2019). His most recent solo exhibition, “Shadow of the Moon” presented porcelain works made in China alongside ceramic installations created in Adelaide, he was also part of Neoteric, a survey of mid-career artists for Adelaide Festival 2022.
He works regularly with Miriwoong artists at Waringarri Aboriginal Arts (Kununurra), and indigenous culture and country is a strong influence on his work. His earlier arts education work in Amata community (APY lands) was recognised with the Education and Arts Ministers award (Artist) in 2013.
In 2011 he was awarded a Special Prize for his work “Plastic Geology” in the Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale, Icheon, South Korea (2011) and his installation work “Master of the Rocks” 1 & 3 was a finalist in the 2020 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale at the Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei.
His work is held in the collection of The Art Gallery of South Australia, Flinders Medical Centre, The Pottery Workshop (JDZ), Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Yingge Ceramics Museum, and numerous private collections.