- Mar 14

Hayden Phoenix

Hayden Phoenix is a concrete sculptor who is represented by 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace on the Gold Coast of Australia. His work remains influenced by wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic of imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete qualities.

The sculptures were initially influenced by Hayden’s time in Japan during the late 1990’s. His observations of the Japanese concrete and brutalist architecture inspired him to create casted concrete sculptures. Hayden carefully dyes areas of the concrete with neutral tones and uses materials such as rebar wire to act as an aesthetic and holding mechanism for some of the sculptures.

Working in three formats, Hayden works in stand-alone sculptures, framed reliefs, and pottery all created from concrete. The free standing casts and framed reliefs are quite minimalistic, often displayed out in plain rectangular shapes with dyed spheres contained within. A celestial quality contained with the spaced out circles and symbolic indentations, almost as if representing planets, moons, and stars. The use of rebar wire contains fascinating implications, giving off a look of incomplete structures fulfilling the aesthetic of wabi-sabi. Circles contained within range from taking up a large portion of the composition to becoming small and located in corners. Composed in an asymmetrical manner, these raw castings show off the brutish natural gray of the concrete material.

The framed reliefs come off looking similar to Japanese karesansui gardens as the grainy flat concrete has the look of neutral colored, dyed sand. Within these flat sculptures are carefully placed circles which give off a therapeutic effect, as if centering the viewers away and behaving as a focal point for the composition.

These contemporary sculptures make a statement about material and post-minimalistic qualities. What does concrete tell us about contemporary society? They are a symbol of contemporary process and industry. The industrial nature of these works reflect upon us a sense of dynamic tension between the celestial and human-created structure. Wonders of contemporary industrialization have left us with art which convey a distinction between creating for functionality and establishing an aesthetic.

Hayden Phoenix gives us pure forms through a story of discovery. His fascination with casting and architecture creates works which could inspire future architectural and interior design projects. A thoroughly inspiring artist who takes us through the adventures of brute force and how to bend it to our will.