Sophie Clague
The Visitors
Powder Coated Steel
220 x 280 x 240 cm
2016
A trio of three large steel sculptures, the Visitors were installed at Bondi Beach, appearing as off-white spectres on a cliff.
The work plays on memory and emotion through familiar yet alien forms, and their mysterious and unsettling presence in the landscape. The skeletal sculptures were blisteringly apparent against the uniformity of sky and sea, and the off-white powder-coat enhanced the association with bones or driftwood washed up on a beach, like the surf-tumbled remains of something that used to be alive.
The title reinforces the fact that the group are from somewhere else – a group of ‘others’ - inspiring questions with their silence: Where are they from? How long will they stay? How did they come to be here? Where are they going next? What is their purpose? Are they welcome or uninvited? Which one is dominant, which one is most trustworthy, and which do you need to keep eyes on at all times? What is their relationship to each other? Do they have a shared history, and will they have a shared future?