Scott Eady
"The idea of something that is going nowhere is a common theme in this show. A lot of that is about the difficulty of trying to find a sense of place in a national and global setting."
The Otago Polytechnic School of Art Sculpture lecturer has become renowned for his slyly humorous large-scale sculptures, designed to confound audience assumptions about how objects ought to function. In the past these have included a room-sized wooden chainsaw, a lacquered pink pickup truck and a public art work about which little is known, since he elected to bury it underground.
His latest exhibition, ‘Lost at the Bottom of the World', which was on show at the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui in 2010, is no exception to this rule. Its impressive centrepiece appears at first sight to be an elegant, professional quality, double-scull rowing boat, until the viewer realises that it has two bows, leaving its rowers no choice but to row in opposition to one another and rendering the boat eternally immobile. "I liked the idea of this boat built for speed that was going nowhere," Eady says. "The idea of something that is going nowhere is a common theme in this show. A lot of that is about the difficulty of trying to find a sense of place in a national and global setting." Eady's ability to raise thought-provoking questions with his sculptures is such that he has even been forced to engage with NZ Customs in the timeless debate over what constitutes art.
"They've asked me a series of questions: ‘Can the boat be rowed?' ‘Does the boat float?' I had to write back and explain, ‘This is not a boat!'"
The irony of it all is not lost on Eady, which is no surprise, considering the important role that humour plays in his work. Other pieces in the exhibition, such as Money Train, which features a model train cast from obsolete coins on a closed, circular track, also showcase his trademark sardonic wit.
"I'm having a lot of fun with the works and with the viewer, particularly in new works that invite viewer interaction," Eady says. He offers some intriguing hints about what to expect from his next exhibition: "Some of it involves setting traps for the viewer. Some of it involves inviting viewers to participate in ways they normally wouldn't. Some of it probably raises health and safety issues! I'm enjoying being a little more antagonistic, to be honest."