WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.083 (soft music playing) 2 00:00:06.128 --> 00:00:07.420 [Peter Schipperheyn] From a really early age, 3 00:00:07.420 --> 00:00:09.347 my father used to take me onto building sites 4 00:00:09.347 --> 00:00:11.573 and give me a hammer and some nails and I'd sit there, 5 00:00:11.573 --> 00:00:12.406 at three years old, 6 00:00:12.406 --> 00:00:13.843 knocking things together. 7 00:00:13.843 --> 00:00:15.240 It just progressed from there, 8 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.203 billy carts and cubby huts and all manner of things, 9 00:00:18.203 --> 00:00:19.036 I just always made things. 10 00:00:19.036 --> 00:00:22.950 line:15% Then I went through school where sort of art wasn't really, 11 00:00:22.950 --> 00:00:23.783 line:15% in my time, 12 00:00:23.783 --> 00:00:24.616 line:15% wasn't really encouraged, 13 00:00:24.616 --> 00:00:27.190 line:15% it was regarded as a sort of a hobby at best 14 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:29.570 and went into graphic design, 15 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:30.950 lasted only six months there 16 00:00:30.950 --> 00:00:32.962 and the Dean there said, 17 00:00:32.962 --> 00:00:34.420 'You'd be better as a fine artist.' 18 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:37.200 So I started making some sculpture 19 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:38.033 and really liked that 20 00:00:38.033 --> 00:00:40.060 and just really liked the process, 21 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:41.670 particularly carving, 22 00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:45.300 and finished up getting an Italian government Scholarship. 23 00:00:45.300 --> 00:00:47.410 Went to Carrara in Italy and that's where really, 24 00:00:47.410 --> 00:00:51.160 that was a sort of a transforming experience for me. 25 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:52.780 Here I was at the heart of stone, 26 00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:55.800 heart of this place that's been for thousands of years 27 00:00:55.800 --> 00:00:57.970 mining with the tradition that's, you know, 28 00:00:57.970 --> 00:00:59.450 Michelangelo, everybody went there. 29 00:00:59.450 --> 00:01:00.840 It was just the Italian culture, 30 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:01.673 the mountains, 31 00:01:01.673 --> 00:01:03.190 it was, it was an amazing, 32 00:01:03.190 --> 00:01:04.130 absolutely amazing time. 33 00:01:04.130 --> 00:01:06.223 From that point I knew what I wanted to do. 34 00:01:10.790 --> 00:01:14.670 I work in marble because it can suggest so many things. 35 00:01:14.670 --> 00:01:16.360 It's like got a language, you know, 36 00:01:16.360 --> 00:01:19.460 it can suggest skin or it can suggest drapery, 37 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:20.293 it can suggest, 38 00:01:20.293 --> 00:01:21.126 I mean, I do, 39 00:01:21.126 --> 00:01:23.330 I am a figurative artist, 40 00:01:23.330 --> 00:01:25.800 I like to work with the human figure 41 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:26.870 and so it really, 42 00:01:26.870 --> 00:01:29.053 really suits what I try to express. 43 00:01:31.580 --> 00:01:32.890 So portraiture, 44 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:35.990 I didn't do until I was much, 45 00:01:35.990 --> 00:01:37.090 until I'd been many, many 46 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:38.490 about a decade into the stone. 47 00:01:38.490 --> 00:01:41.430 Initially I and still do make models in clay 48 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:43.190 or drawings of models and I work, 49 00:01:43.190 --> 00:01:44.573 I take photographs. 50 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:46.880 I'll work out the model. 51 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:48.930 I know the size of the block I need 52 00:01:48.930 --> 00:01:51.520 and then it's a matter of going to Carrara 53 00:01:51.520 --> 00:01:53.340 and finding something 54 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:54.720 and each block is different. 55 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:56.940 There's never, there's no one block that's, you know, 56 00:01:56.940 --> 00:01:59.150 that there's no two blocks that are the same 57 00:01:59.150 --> 00:02:00.630 and I gotta say, 58 00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:02.050 it speaks to me when I see a block. 59 00:02:02.050 --> 00:02:02.883 I either like it, 60 00:02:02.883 --> 00:02:03.716 or I don't like it. 61 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:08.440 I don't think that stone is a dead thing, 62 00:02:08.440 --> 00:02:09.360 I think it's alive. 63 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:10.390 It's actually seashells 64 00:02:10.390 --> 00:02:12.420 that were laid down millions of years ago 65 00:02:12.420 --> 00:02:13.796 and then compressed and squashed 66 00:02:13.796 --> 00:02:16.040 and as the tectonic plates move, 67 00:02:16.040 --> 00:02:18.150 they thrust up into these mountains. 68 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:20.003 So it's got energy, you know, 69 00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:22.730 and so for me, 70 00:02:22.730 --> 00:02:24.360 I feel a little bit disappointed 71 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:25.690 if people don't wanna go up to it 72 00:02:25.690 --> 00:02:28.250 and I don't feel I'm doing my job properly then. 73 00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:30.100 I think it's gotta evoke that, 74 00:02:30.100 --> 00:02:33.440 it's gotta want to entice people to touch it. 75 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:34.500 You know, it's a sensuous thing, 76 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:36.420 it's a beautiful material, so. 77 00:02:36.420 --> 00:02:38.290 I think I was telling somebody before 78 00:02:38.290 --> 00:02:39.980 that if you go into St. Peter's 79 00:02:39.980 --> 00:02:41.775 there's a bronze of St. Peter, 80 00:02:41.775 --> 00:02:44.080 I think it's from the 12th century, 81 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:45.700 it's foot has been all, 82 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:47.610 it's all sort of amorphous weird shape 83 00:02:47.610 --> 00:02:49.160 and it's polished bronze, 84 00:02:49.160 --> 00:02:51.000 but from people kissing it. 85 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:52.369 That's amazing I think, that you know, 86 00:02:52.369 --> 00:02:54.019 that sort of stuff I really love. 87 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:01.040 To me, it's always important how something sits, 88 00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:02.490 it's gotta be properly engineered, 89 00:03:02.490 --> 00:03:04.490 it's not gonna fall over and hurt somebody you know, 90 00:03:04.490 --> 00:03:05.323 I mean the weights 91 00:03:05.323 --> 00:03:06.260 that I'm dealing with sometimes, you know, 92 00:03:06.260 --> 00:03:07.540 tonnes and tonnes of weight, so. 93 00:03:07.540 --> 00:03:10.880 I did a piece in St. Stephen's Cathedral, 94 00:03:10.880 --> 00:03:11.860 it was just hanging on a wall, 95 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:13.320 it's about three tonnes, you know, 96 00:03:13.320 --> 00:03:14.153 so to get it, 97 00:03:14.153 --> 00:03:17.710 even just to put it up there was a big effort, so. 98 00:03:17.710 --> 00:03:18.543 But I enjoy it, 99 00:03:18.543 --> 00:03:19.376 crazily enough. (chuckling) 100 00:03:19.376 --> 00:03:20.760 I make my life, you know, 101 00:03:20.760 --> 00:03:22.330 dragging these stones around the world 102 00:03:22.330 --> 00:03:24.870 and logistically it's quite a, 103 00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:27.740 quite a effort to do these things, 104 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:29.230 but I've got many years of experience 105 00:03:29.230 --> 00:03:30.260 and I saw it when I was in Italy, 106 00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:32.030 how you pick things up. 107 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:32.990 The thing is with marble, 108 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:35.350 especially if it's finished and polished, 109 00:03:35.350 --> 00:03:36.470 it's slippery. 110 00:03:36.470 --> 00:03:37.670 So I'm always a bit anxious, 111 00:03:37.670 --> 00:03:38.503 even though, you know, 112 00:03:38.503 --> 00:03:39.336 I come here this morning, 113 00:03:39.336 --> 00:03:41.050 even though I've got 40 years of experience, 114 00:03:41.050 --> 00:03:42.000 I'm always a little bit anxious 115 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.540 about actually moving the things 116 00:03:43.540 --> 00:03:44.820 because touch wood, 117 00:03:44.820 --> 00:03:46.060 is there some wood around here? 118 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:48.470 I haven't had any accidents 119 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:49.740 and although I've seen them happening 120 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:50.840 with other people, so. 121 00:03:57.516 --> 00:04:01.640 Well, I started about more than 25 years ago I think. 122 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:06.010 I wrote to Pete and he was initially 123 00:04:06.010 --> 00:04:08.380 not really interested in the idea because he's, 124 00:04:08.380 --> 00:04:11.160 he's not really interested in himself. 125 00:04:11.160 --> 00:04:12.077 He said, 'Why do you wanna do a portrait of me?' 126 00:04:12.077 --> 00:04:15.000 And I said, 'Well, look at you, you know. (chuckling) 127 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:16.620 line:15% Somebody's gotta do a portrait of you. 128 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:17.860 line:15% I mean, someone will do a portrait of you, 129 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:19.250 line:15% and it might as well be me.' 130 00:04:19.250 --> 00:04:22.230 line:15% And seeing the band live and seeing this, you know, 131 00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:27.230 line:15% this big primal gangly sort of half stick-figure scarecrow, 132 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:29.933 line:15% amazing presence that he had on stage, 133 00:04:30.890 --> 00:04:32.010 line:15% I just wanted to do, 134 00:04:32.010 --> 00:04:34.060 line:15% I wanted to do something to capture this sort of, 135 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:37.113 line:15% for me a quintessential Australian sort of character. 136 00:04:41.149 --> 00:04:44.313 I made a plaster mold and then did a clay study 137 00:04:46.150 --> 00:04:50.290 and then enlarged the piece using, 138 00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:54.850 I use callipers and things to enlarge it in stone. 139 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:57.650 And basically then you just finish work from the model 140 00:04:57.650 --> 00:05:00.528 and interpret the details to what, 141 00:05:00.528 --> 00:05:02.340 what I've got there. 142 00:05:02.340 --> 00:05:03.410 I really like realism 143 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:06.490 but I'm not so much concerned with exact realism. 144 00:05:06.490 --> 00:05:11.340 I try to find between stylisation and realism, 145 00:05:11.340 --> 00:05:14.040 looking for that balance that I like. 146 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:16.030 Sculpture works with very simple things 147 00:05:16.030 --> 00:05:18.230 like the hole in the lump 148 00:05:18.230 --> 00:05:21.480 and the way the light comes off whatever you shape 149 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:23.610 and what that evokes and if that, you know, 150 00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:24.827 you can engage not only yourself, 151 00:05:24.827 --> 00:05:26.060 but you engage an audience, 152 00:05:26.060 --> 00:05:30.057 that's the game. 153 00:05:30.057 --> 00:05:33.474 line:15% (gentle music continues)