Clive Murray - White

How did you get involved with the Sculpture park project? 
David Wilson,   the Project Advisor contacted me directly, we were friends, neighbours and close professional colleagues and most often than not, in those days that was how things were done. He was head of sculpture at what is now the VCA and I was the sculpture head at the art school that became Monash Gippsland.
 
Almost all the participating sculptors were linked to David’s position as Head of Sculpture at the National Gallery School (now VCA), Lenton Parr was the head of that school at the time, Elizabeth Klose taught in the sculpture department with Wilson, Bruce Armstrong had taught with David at Prahran CAE before it amalgamated with the National Gallery School, Peter Randall had been a student at Prahran.
 
In those days there were very close ties between Sydney and Melbourne steel sculptors, Paul Hopmeier, from Sydney, was a highly considered emerging steel sculptor at that time.


What was the inspiration for your works? or Artist statement
 
My three works come from 3 distinct periods of my earlier career, “It can be fun learning to play Lacrosse” from 1976 is the earliest and by far the largest (B&W picture supplied) Like many young sculptors, back in those days we were very excited by steel because it gave us the opportunity to work as quickly as painters. Needless to say we also stridently rejected just about everything that sculpture had been up to that time. We enjoyed a great deal of success but after about 10 years most of us started looking for new challenges.
 
“T’Pieces” probably created in 1980 was made from “accidents” created in the Lysaghts wire making plant in Geelong, I used to call it “spaghetti or salami” metal, thick steel that had bent to look completely effortless whilst very hot, this I used to make a far more lyrical style of sculpture. (No usable pictures of this sculpture.)
 
By 1983 I’d decided “that there was another Art in me” and though I had no idea what it may be I just started following my nose. At the heart of this was an idea that all the kinds of rules that had grown up around welded steel sculpture could be thrown out. I called this “Universalism,” “The 1st Universalist Sculpture” was as the title says the first work in this new venture.
 
The usefulness of this stage of my career was that it encouraged me to have no preconceptions about what should or should not be contemporary sculpture and when someone came into the sculpture studio at the Gippsland IAE, where I was head, to donate a ute load of Australian stone I almost instantly realised that I’d found what I needed, that other art that I had been looking for.
 
The rest is history, I’ve just made marble heads ever since.
 
Where else is your work available for public viewing now ?
 
In terms of the steel works, there are many in public collections scattered throughout the country but are, like most other works, not always on display namely, National Gallery of Victoria, Australian National Gallery, QGoma and many regional Australian galleries. In terms of permanent display they can be found at The McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Monash, Melbourne, Macquarie, Deakin Universities and Parliament House Canberra.
 
It is a very similar story with the more recent stone sculptures, most notable of these are “The Alfred Felton Centenary Sculpture” on permanent display in The NGV, currently in The Ian Potter Centre and “Lars Compitalis” Victory Park Traralgon.