The Bends Sculpture

The bends is a series I developed on the idea of an upscaled paperclip as it represented sculpturally my interest in line, fold, and bends as well as the symbolic meaning and representation of connection and pillars. Madi Whyte uses finite landscapes as pictorial tropes to explore languages of precision, form, and the cut. This body of work focuses on atypical viewpoints; geographic coordinates; and the examination of her composite relationship to various landscapes, forms, and topos. Influenced by her own rural upbringing on Gunditjmara Country, Madi explores the multifarious and undulating connection she shares with the land – how it behaves as a metaphor, material, and teacher. This work is part of a series- TOPIA, A Sunburnt Country proposes the artist as photographer and metalworker, to discover an emblematic and personal correlation between the formal qualities of the rural Australian landscape, and the abstracted spatial compositions of her images and sculptural objects. Madi’s interest in earth, Country, and its material resources speak to the alchemy of her film and forging processes, both heavily symbolizing her interest in the transformational properties of heat, industrial intervention, labor, and force. The search for outcome through materials is a mirror for the search for self in a location that the artist seeks.