Melbourne-based artist Robbie Rowlands creates large-scale sculptural interventions by manipulating the built environment to explore notions of stability and vulnerability.
“His repetitious and precise cuts (and the resulting distortions) reflect the inescapable passing of time that affects everything around us. Rowlands’ works have been described as spotlighting the history, humanity and function of his subjects. His manipulated objects and spaces blur the boundaries between our fabricated world and the natural world.
He is best known for his sculptural interventions into pre-demolition buildings through to utilitarian objects such as urban street poles. Whilst studying at PRATT Institute in 1998 under the guidance of Professor Marsha Pels he explored abandoned areas of Brooklyn creating object and site interventions. These initial explorations have grown a body of work that has explored sites such as a 1950’s bus depot, a 1900’s wooden Baptist church in Dandenong, Australia through to abandoned buildings in Detroit, USA.”
