Eating New York

Glen Hayward in conversation with Peter Adsett at Sydney Contemporary, PAULNACHE Bay 21 E02, Carriageworks, 2023. IMG X Document Photography

Sculpture

 

Glen Hayward
PAULNACHE EO2
Sydney Contemporary
7–11 September 2023
Carriageworks
Sydney NSW Australia

 
 

Glen Hayward’s work blends carving, painting and conceptualism to snare the viewer in a standoff around what is real or illusionary, art or not art, profound or absurd. 

Hayward’s latest work ‘Eating New York, Part 2’ presented at Sydney Contemporary is based on his travel to some of the world’s major galleries. Rather than profound art experiences, Hayward walked away with bad photographs of fixings such as the Fire Suppression System from The Whitney Museum. He later remakes these objects out of wood in his Whanganui studio. The project put a new twist on Hayward’s interest in redeploying the objects that are encountered in and/or put to work in the art gallery, which allows him to tease out the behaviours and experiences they engender, and then question how this all intersects with ‘the real world’. These sculptures are neither (or both) here or there, functional or dysfunctional. The project has become even more pointed at a time of limited travel and access to international art.

Hayward is a wayward art viewer and, in many ways, also a wayward maker of art. His work constantly forces us to look and think again. It offers a kind of everyday mysticism, challenging us to trust in or doubt the validity of the objects or experiences that we encounter in the here and now—especially inside the art gallery but also in the world beyond it.

 

Catalogue

  1. Whitney Fire Suppression System (between Calder and Oiticica)
    2022
    Wood and paint
    260 x 60 x 60cm
    AUD$55,000

  2. Nothing Happens (Whitney pipe with chain)
    2023
    Rimu and enamel paint
    180 (H) x 41 (W) x 22cm (D)
    AUD$12,500

  3. Nothing Ever Happens (Whitney pipe with chain)
    2023
    Rimu and enamel paint
    180 (H) x 41 (W) x 22cm (D)
    AUD$$15,000 (unique, increased chain length)

  4. Ultima Fermata (Parekowhai at Venice Biennale) Fire extinguisher
    2023
    Wood & paint
    65 x 30 x 20cm
    AUD$15,000

  5. Trickle Down Affect (plunger)
    2023
    Wood, paint
    24.5 x 10cm
    AUD$1,500

  6. Eating New York (polaroids)
    2023
    Wood, paint
    10 x 8 x 0.3cm
    AUD$1,500 ea.

  7. Legacy System (cig butt)
    2023
    Wood, paint
    Approx. 7 x 1.2cm
    AUD$350 ea. (unique)

 
 

Acknowledgements

Sculpture: Glen Hayward
Text: Aaron Lister
Installation photography: Document Photography
Artwork images: Cheska Brown
Images: Courtesy of the © artist & PAULNACHE