Louise Haselton: Act Natural
Gillian Brown, Leigh Robb, Jenna McKenzie
Wakefield Press
Sculptor Lousie Haselton explores the inner life of natural forms and industrial castoffs allowing reconfigurations to occur in unexpected ways. From these everyday items, the artist builds new meaning that disrupts their internal logic. For instance, a spider sea shell attached with tubular metal extensions, alters the dynamics of the shell beyond its physicality or an industrial-sized roll of paper, cement bricks and small marble blocks are lined up along the floor with poles extending upwards partially covered with denim to frame the open space of this constructed rectangle. Leigh Robb comments, ‘Her sculptures and installations deftly control emptiness and amplify silence – they hint at hidden spaces.’
Studies in English Literature and comparative religions underpin Haseltons’s early works and show her love of teasing out the play between text and object. Later moving to a more poetic use of language and the space between things aligned with post-minimalism.
Haselton is the most recent feature artist for SALA (2019) with an exhibition at Samstag Museum of Art, South Australia and ‘Act Natural’ being the resultant in-depth monograph initiated each year by the SALA Board. It is a compendium of 25 years of Haselton’s work with essays from Gillian Brown and Leigh Robb. Opening pages begin with poetic insights by Ken Bolton and bookended with an extensive chronology by Jenna McKenzie which documents travel and residencies in India, London and Europe before Haselton returns to her roots in South Australia.
