Augusta Vinall Richardson: Teeter

Laying out paper stencils, I follow their outline with a texta onto steel sheeting. I cut them with a handheld corded grinder. I manipulate each flat piece of steel using a vice to secure the steel, tin grips and a rubber mallet to coerce the flat steel into bending. I keep bending and hitting the steel with the mallet until the piece of steel emulates the contours I need. These activities encompass the beginning stages of a process of transformation. From flat paper to form. The shapes cut from steel, take on a dimensionality that they do not have on the drawn page. The act of cutting into the sheet metal signals a clear intention and direction. Each shape has yet to be realised, however, and the effort and reward of building a multitude of three-dimensional shapes is yet to come. Teetering between the complete and the possible, the firsts cuts provide a pathway to a new dimension.

—Augusta Vinall Richardson, 2021