Boccioni Babe

Justene Williams transforms familiar materials into humorous, uncanny and compelling works with an eccentric edge. In Boccioni Babe she captures a female figure mid-stride. Its roughly hewn and angular forms (first cut and constructed in foam) defy gravity; it is inert yet ready to bound into motion.

The work refers to the Italian artist Umberto Boccioni – a key figure in early-20th-century futurism – and his iconic 1913 sculpture Unique forms of continuity in space. Offering a contemporary counterpoint to Boccioni’s speeding figure of progress, Williams presents her vision of a progressive future as one in which femininity is writ large and unapologetically. —Art Gallery of New South Wales website

Justene Williams' Boccioni Babe was commissioned for the opening of Naala Badu, AGNSW's new building that opened in 2022. It is located outdoors in the sculpture garden.