Danny Gretscher: Blue in the Sky

Byron Bay, 2018

DANNY GRETSCHER

Blue in the Sky

December, 2018

Byron Bay

A new body of work inspired by the Berlin-based artist's 2018 residency in the Byron Bay hinterland.

Created in the Byron hinterland of Upper Main Arm, where walls were none, parrots wandered into the artist’s studio at leisure and the rain fell as stones, this new body of work captures the energy of the valley, its colours, climate, light and dark. Giving a voice to the natural and spirit world, Gretscher’s layered textures and bird-like forms, a signature of his work, increasingly share the stage with members of the plant kingdom since his first venture to Australia two years ago from a deep urban residency in Berlin.

Following an eight year break, the artist returns to sculpture in this exhibition, working with the local camphor laurel for the first time. Unlike the linden wood of Europe, the Australian camphor’s irregular grains and knots guide the way for his figures to take shape. Heavily influenced by energy and legend in his work, Gretscher's sculptures are no exception, their doll-like form taking on their own personas.

“For centuries, humans have felt that dolls emanate both a holiness and a ‘mana’ - an awesome and compelling presence which acts upon persons, changing them spiritually.. the doll is the symbol of what lies buried in humans that is numinous.. the small being within” 

  - Clarissa Pinkola Estes