IRONY
In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous. Aristotle (384-322BC) There is a stillness in the work of sculptor Ben Somerville. His renditions of kangaroos, wombats, and birds express a real sense of the animal, the rusty iron shaped and groomed, given longevity with care. When I meet Somerville at his Moorooka home studio he is personally contained, considered. There is a stoicism broken on regular occasions by a smile, a momentary loosening. Yet I suspect that it is his personal watchfulness, his ability to observe and wait, that informs his sculptures of native animals so strongly. They are, like the dogs which first brought him an audience, imbued with the essence of each animal.

Somerville’s journey into an artistic career has had some byways, and is informed by study across multiple disciplines, all of which are expressed as a personal and philosophical position in his work. These include science, philosophy, a bachelor of arts, then a break of five years before study of the built environment, focusing on industrial design. He is also a keen bushwalker, nature conservationist, and, having grown up in western Queensland, still considers himself, “a country person”. His work and life express his connection to the Australian landscape. He suggested that, “Going bush allows me to observe and reflect on what we have - and have lost”.

Sustainability issues, and reuse of materials meaningful to an Australian cultural heritage, are visible in his use of corrugated iron, old hardwood fence posts and other remnants in his making of the goannas, thylacine, turtles, wombats, eagles and kookaburras for this most recent exhibition. The materials are gathered from creeks and parks, friend’s properties, and house renovations, and are cut and shaped. He may add rivets, concrete at times, but mostly his cost is simply the time invested in these materials which themselves have, for Somerville, highly valued and visible life experience.

The sculptures are inspired at times by the shape and surface of the found materials, at others by animals he has seen and wishes to recreate. The Tasmanian tigers, thylacine, are constructed with a corrugated iron with existing rusty stripes. The larger kangaroos are made from red rusted iron, which has a naturally occurring colour variation from weathering iron. The kookaburra is created by pairing white painted iron with unpainted, reflecting the two tone colouration of the bird in nature.

Somerville has been making his assemblage style of sculpture for almost 15 years, exhibiting first in a Darwin exhibition in June 1997. While initially self-taught, he chose to study industrial design to refine his direction and develop better working methods, and has used it to extend, in recent years, the aesthetic of the bush sculptural assemblage tradition. His sculptures are strong, highly functional; some have moving parts. The goanna’s tail, for example, may be manipulated into different positions – the smoothness of this operation at odds with the animal’s rustic appearance. Somerville’s work fits into an assemblage tradition seen in recent decades with Tom Risley’s found material sculptures, Jonathan McCord’s furniture from animal bones, Christopher Trotter’s constructions, even the wire ‘baskets’ made by Lorraine Connelly-Northey (who is of Irish and Aboriginal descent). The common ground may be the significant time these artists have spent outside, in a natural environment.

Somerville is comfortable with being seen within a naïve art tradition. “I like less highly considered work, and believe that art is about life experience”. His working methods do not usually include drawing in the bush. In this environment he prefers to observe. “I put together a mental photo album while I’m there. And that becomes my reference for later.” The success of this process is manifest in the work and its often spectacular nature: the life-size Wedgetail eagle with its six foot wing span is dramatic for its size, rarity and proximity. Few people have been this close to an eagle in nature.

Somerville’s expanding reputation, experience and interests have enabled him to make a living from his work in recent years. New animals, some endangered, have been added to his repertoire. He continues to extend his range and subject matter, “scrounging for forgotten remnants in the bush of Queensland and the Northern Territory”. These creatures become the ultimate irony - made from human industrial waste they evoke natural phenomena. They are both inspired by and a tribute to environmental wildness.

As Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) wrote, “We can never have enough of nature”.
Louise Martin-Chew