Enver Camdal
Eclectic
31 Jan - 11 Feb 2024
G3
Opening Night
Friday 2 Feb | 6 - 8pm
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As a Turkish artist, Enver Camdal’s deep passion is light and the shapes created by the play of light and shadow. He has worked as a public artist for more than 50 years and created his own distinctive style, reflecting different cultural influences––the early Bronze-Age Hitite SunCourse/Disc designs representing the earth or the sun, and the mosaics, tiles, kilims and rugs of the Anatolian civilisation, past, present and continuous. Inspiration has also come from ancient Greek and Roman cultures.
For the past 15 years, Enver has worked predominantly with glass, specialising in glass fusion using the traditional Hitite circular designs to express beauty, celebration and serenity. Colour and shape are key elements to create a harmonious feeling that ebbs and flows across the works. The patterns resemble celestial orbital mapping, connection and ancient crisscrossing pathways that reference fertility, the abundance of nature and human movement across the land. His most recent work combines laser-cut sheet metal and coloured glass, free-standing sculptures, with some illuminated to become beautiful lamps.
These artworks are designed to make viewers feel positive and invoke feelings of pleasure, tranquillity and a sense of uplifting the spirit with their aesthetic appeal of colour, shape, line and pattern. The transparent and reflective qualities of the glass offer a playfulness of light and reflection, enhancing any environment in which they are displayed. Some of the works are flat with a surface akin to the flat weave of the kilims and some have a more undulating surface, referencing the variations in the pile of the traditional hand-woven rugs.
Artist Bio
Enver Camdal has worked as a public artist for more than 50 years and created his own distinctive style, reflecting different cultural influences. He has established a vibrant and successful artistic career in Turkey after completing his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, Istanbul, and then in Australia. He’s completed numerous commissions for private, public and commercial buildings and local councils both as an individual public artist and collaboratively with many highly respected public artists. His career highlights include:
2022-23: Eltham North Adventure Playground Mosaic Project, Shire of Nillumbik Vic.
2021: Freedom Flock, (collaboration with Helen Bodycomb), commissioned by City of Merri- bek, Warden’s Walk, Pentridge, Coburg Vic, commemorating prisoners of conscience incarcerated for anti-conscription, anti-war and peace activism at Pentridge and other prisons across Victoria.
1998-99: Campbell Parade Public Artwork Project, Bondi Beach, Sydney NSW (collaboration with Helen Bodycomb), comprising 29 mosaic benches and table-tops along 1km of seafront, referencing aspects of Bondi’s distinct cultural and natural histories, commissioned by the City of Waverley.
1996-9: Westgarth Public Art Project, City of Darebi, Northcote Vic (collaboration with Bodycomb and Chris Rak), comprising eight pairs of steel dragonfly, ten welded steel sculptural pieces depicting fauna indigenous to the area that also functioned as bicycle racks, and stainless steel, ceramic and glass mosaics inlaid into the pavement. Also Carrington Road Public Art Project, City of Whitehorse Vic; Camberwell Market Public Art Project, City of Boroondara Vic; Nest, Eltham Roundabout Sculpture Commission, Shire of Nillumbik Vic.
1995: Nuts and Bolts, Newport Train Station, City of Hobson’s Bay Vic (collaboration with Geoff Hogg). A stunning concrete relief mural leading into and through the pedestrian underpass, depicting tools, equipment and broken machinery, suggesting the breakdown of engineering, fabrication and heavy industrial maintenance, especially railways, which were once the focus of Newport.
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
