Reaching Out

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BACKGROUND This creative work draws upon the history of sculpture and touch alongside research into mechanisms to creating sensory and affective engagement. This sculpture engages with the concept of how we can understand tactile surfaces through vision as ‘sensation of palpability’ as discussed in The Art of Sculpture (1956) by Herbert Read. This notion of feeling through seeing has also been extensively explored in philosophical and scientific literature concerned with perception including phenomenologists Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger to work in cognitive science and embodiment such as enactivism (Noe, 2004) and sensorimotor empathy (Chemero 2016). This work draws upon ideas that marks of touch in sculpture that are only visually perceived evoke a very similar pattern of brain activity to actual touch as understood in mirror neurone theories (Rizzolatti et al 1992). This idea of embodied simulation of material experience is an ongoing area of study.

CONTRIBUTION ‘Reaching Out’ is a small bronze sculpture exhibited as part of my ongoing investigation into how sculptural objects can serve as conduits for connection and communication. Through the process of bronze casting, gestures and traces of the body are sensitively recorded in form. This traditional medium becomes a site for contemporary exploration - an interface through which the haptic, the emotional, and the cognitive intersect. In “Reaching Out’, botanical branching forms extend into space to support sensate nodes shaped by touch and painted to evoke both the fragility and persistence of tactile memory. These nodes are painted in vivid yellow which acts as a visual vibration which activates a perceptual response that echoes the sensation of touch. In this way, the work reaches out beyond its materiality, asking the viewer to feel through seeing, and to engage with the sculptural form as an extension of the body.

SIGNIFICANCE This work was selected through a competitive process as part of the MACQUETTE Sculpture Award 2025 held by McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. McClelland has a large collection of sculpture, administers the Southern Way McClelland Commission and is funded by the Creative Australia and Creative Victoria. Reaching Out was awarded HIGHLY COMMENDED as part of the competition which was judged by Dr John Meade.