Faustas Sadauskas

Faustas Sadauskas is a master in the manipulation of stone. He has a had a long and fruitful career, exhibitions across Australia and internationally. His works are held in many significant private collections.

Requisition of Matter is an expose of selected works articulating the use of Australian marble to remake found objects into abstract sculptures. As works of contemporary art, they seek to address the process by which geometric volumes are recomposed. Originating as simple constructs, they are transfigured into recognisable abstract forms - the cylinder becomes a ring, the cone twists into a knot, the cube loops around itself, the sphere is divided into variegated hues, ovals interweave within their own space... The use of marble sees various structural elements within each work become fastened to create an equilibrium of pivoting shapes. Other forms are braced together or buttressed against one another, seemingly defying their own material shortcomings having been moulded and flexed into various contortions. In so, they redefine their own material properties, that sees uninhibited gestures of movement and fluidity.

What may be an industrial discard to some, can be reimagined to a new scale. The utilitarian hand held and purpose built becomes construed into a sculpture object. Fabricated offcuts, seemingly jettisoned from everyday use, are differentiated to find new meaning. These works recollect a design function. However, unlike the detached fabricating processes and digital make believe of todays visual kaleidoscope, they are steadfast concrete objects requiring human touch – art made in reverence of real matter. Having delved into various genres in the past, the reoccurring theme of fashioning stone into sculpture continues to oscillate between the notions of the abstract and representational. As hard and as difficult a material may be, marble itself, when polished, takes on an entirely different hue as though contradicting its own density as a metamorphic crystalline calcium carbonate composite.

The stone quarried from the East Gippsland region of Victoria is a rare commodity that few artists dare to challenge. Though spontaneity may be an uncommon trait amongst sculptors working in such a material, the patience required and the delayed gratification of the working process, add to the potency of each individual work. Inevitably, stone as sculptural matter, cannot be completely mastered or yielded to bare the artist’s will. At best, it may be requisitioned to serve a higher purpose and be granted the respect it deserves. F.S

2021 Exhibition Catalogue

2024 Exhibition Catalogue