Current Exhibitions
Air Strips
Sherrie Knipe
1-30 August, 2025
Opening: Friday 1st, August 6-8 PM
Air Strips is a diverse body of work with a simple premise: things that can be reduced to a line. After years of making sculptures using sheets of veneer bonded together to obtain the width required, I became conscious of the amount of ‘waste’ wood I had accumulated. Further, I became aware of how much is also mounting in industry. Like many artists who have worked for some time, the goal of simplifying things, starting with material, appealed to me.
I began to make paper sculptures out of strips of soft paper and sticky tape. I hung them or left them alone so they could fall and droop on their own – a tricky thing for a control freak. But I waited. Simplification was not the sole goal, but also to let go, just a little bit. I was rewarded with something my work had not seen before: serendipity.
From these paper beginnings, I began to strip up my veneer stash. To supplement my resources, I have a business that allows me to exploit their off-cuts. I take what I find useful and do not concern myself with species – so long as I can get enough of one to make a work, I’m happy!
The sculptures that result from this process continue my passion for common everyday things around me, be it the neighbour’s gate or a park bench. They reflect my interest in seeing the beauty in decline, of aging and in some cases, imply failure. I hope they speak of both fragility and strength and of the space between a busy mind and busy hands.
Photo: Andrea Packwood #andreapackwoodphotography