Jenni Crompton

These are some details of Jenny Crompton's; 'Sea, Country Spirits' which won the 2016 Lorne Sculpture Biennale. 

Jenny Crompton studied acting and yet moved to art with no formal study she explored wood carving and other materials these incredible sculptures are woven from wire and assembled with found objects such as shells, feathers and grasses collected when walking. 

"In Sea Country Spirits, there are three large totems – a flying fox, from the land; a bird, representing sky; and a fiddler ray, representing the sea. These three totems were the inner circle around which the other spirits had to be formed. Nothing was drawn or pre-thought except for the first three totems; I kept the process loose. When I was making, I was thinking about things that I can see but not in a representational way, instead allowing a feeling of what it says to me. Circling these three totems are smaller sculptures that are representations from the sky, land and sea; they range from quite representational into purely abstracted forms. I did not think in a specific way, but I started making and let the shapes evolve by themselves. All the pieces have been decorated by the found objects from the land. I had to take in to account which objects could be sewn back in. After the pieces have been sprayed white, the found objects were attached, but they dictated how the object would be constructed." Jenny Crompton