Sculpting by the sea for more than two decades

The internationally famous Sculpture By The Sea outdoor exhibition is now in its second week. The unique gallery trail along the coastal path from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach draws hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. It also attracts hundreds of applications from artists around the world, competing for a limited number of spaces. 

One of this year’s artists is Orest Keywan who has participated in every Sculpture By The Sea event bar one. 

Czech-born artist, Keywan migrated to Australia via Canada in 1965. He submitted a work for the second Sculpture By The Sea, was accepted, and has continued with the event ever since. 

“There weren’t any shows of this type before then,” explains Keywan. “So David [Handley, the founder] sort of pioneered this. I mean there are a million of them now — not as big, most of them — but a million of them, and there were none when David started, so full credit to him for that.”

The event can easily be a full day experience, with pop-up cafes, bars, eateries and tent gallery along the roughly 1.2km walking trail. It is great for local business and for Sydney’s cultural scene in general. 

“What it has done is brought sculpture to the attention of people in Sydney and Australia. It brings in people who would never walk into an art galllery [because they feel a bit intimidated] whereas they’ll go to Sculpture By The Sea,” says Keywan. “What it’s done too, it’s nurtured some patrons of Sculpture By The Sea, people who have become collectors who have never done that before, who never bought a piece of sculpture in their life.”

Many of the sculptures are for sale, but Keywan says he doesn’t really think about the commercial potential of his works. He doesn’t plan what he is going to submit much ahead of time, either. He normally chooses something suitable from among the works-in-progress in his studio and even then, the sculpture might change substantially before it reaches its seaside location. 

“It’s not like I have an idea in mind and then carry it out…I would find that extremely tedious and boring. It would just become labour, you know what I mean?” says Keywan, describing his artistic process, which involves a lot of improvisation and spontaneity. His preferred medium is steel. 

“It suits me. It’s suitable for the kind of things that I wanna make. And if I need to do something else occasionally, I’ll include other materials, like some elements will be made out of another material, but mostly it’s steel.”

The pieces are not a solid mass, but rather a group of elements, metal sheets, rods, frames and shapes wrought into sculptures that are abstract yet compelling. They are also ideal for this type of exhibition. 

“My pieces are very open. You look through them as much as you look at them. So lately they’ve been situated on a rock ledge where all they’ve got behind them is the sea and the sky, which suits them perfectly.”

Apart from being a free, public event that attracts thousands of visitors to the site, Sculpture By The Sea photographed and shared extensively on social media. It’s easy to imagine an artist feeling vulnerable and a little defensive, but Keywan is quite diplomatic about being  critiqued.  

“I’ve heard a few extremely negative comments, but you know, I very strongly feel when you put your work out in a very public exhibition like that, I think you’d be insane to expect everyone to react positively or to like it. It’s out there, it’s open to be liked, disliked, hated, criticised, or anything else.”

Sculpture By The Sea 

Until November 4

Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk

sculpturebythesea.com

www.orestkeywan.net