Braddon Snape: Things are not as they appear

This exhibition continues Braddon Snape's performative process of the often-described miraculous, method of cold inflated steel.

Braddon Snape exhibition

Braddon Snape’s work demonstrates a knowing confidence in dealing with the tradition of an artist working in three dimensions. In his case it involves a somewhat gruelling physical and mental rigour in turning materials into things that resonate in our visual imagination. Since 2014 Snape has been working with a unique approach involving the welding of steel sheets together and inflating them into a variety of forms with compressed air. These works literally express the process of inspiration, with the breath of a pneumatic pump giving them unique presence and personality. Imitating puffed up pillows, paper bags, wine bladders, that are leaned, strung and manipulated in ways that work against the expectations of minimalist sculpture to be true to form and materials. These works are poetic, inferential, and incite the peripheral imagination.

Working with these same materials, this new body of work provides an exciting if not visually exhilarating turn. The liquid and refractive surfaces of these new works serves to blur and destabilise their orientation towards the viewer. They seem to be literally unzipping the firm signs of their manufacture as steel sheets and appear to be spilling out into the surrounding space articulating both the light and the air. Not just mirrors, but a transformation of the movement of air and light particles into a liquid dance. This is like a moment of rapture, or even rupture, where things that have been held in, come spilling out in an ecstatic release. Breathing bodies understand such states as the rhythm of expiration and inspiration, the slow release of breath. It is the state also of wonder, where clear boundaries are transcended, not as an idea, but as a felt sense of delight!
Excerpt from essay by Dr Rod Pattenden.

This extraordinary exhibition has been made possible with the support of Nanda Hobbs Gallery, Sydney and is on view until 4:00pm Sunday 6 February 2022.

Image credits:
Top: Allusive Object (Spiky pod II), 2021, Object: Welded and mirror polished inflated stainless steel. Black portal: Acrylic paint Light source: Focusing light and attachment. Object: 58 x 29 x 29cm, Black ellipse: 213 x 126cm, Light array: variable (approx. 500cm wide x 3m high depending on ambient light conditions, (detail). Courtesy of the artist.
Homepage square: Single Fold Hung n Strung, 2016, Welded and mirror polished inflated stainless steel.Ratchet strap, 180 x 120 x 60 cm. (detail). Courtesy of the artist.
Slider: Allusive Object (3 faced pod), 2021, Welded and mirror polished inflated stainless steel, 33 x 33 x 33 cm. Courtesy of the artist.