Alter by Bruce Rowe

Alter is a collection of 80 sets of ceramic sculptures. Each set comprises three to five individual sculptures arranged on a ceramic plinth. Each of the 280 sculptures in the collection is a unique sculptural object that has been made by artist, Bruce Rowe. The sculptures sitting atop the plinth invite touch and engagement by the viewer.

The sculptures draw on typologies that are both diverse and vernacular. Abstracted forms including towers, grids, walls, columns and bridges are expressed using a refined sculptural language and a colour palette developed for the collection. They are consistent forms in Rowe’s practice, rich with symbolic and metaphoric meaning, that evoke memories of objects or of places. Alter celebrates colour. The spectrum of colour is broad and varied, both tonally and chromatically. Colour for Rowe is a means to visually represent light; it brings delight and joy and the desire to touch.

The physicality of making and working directly with material plays a central role in Rowe’s practice. Whilst the Alter sculptures are small in scale, they are many, creating a condition whereby sustained physical effort over time works in service to the realisation of the collection. Each sculpture is hand-built by Rowe, using a variety of specialised clay bodies and layered surface treatments developed for the Alter.

Rowe’s intention is that the artworks are touched, used and experienced; a constantly evolving, ever changing tableaux that fosters a tactile, personal connection to the work. Through a process of reflection and imagination, each time the work is re-arranged, the viewer creates their own, unique version of how the work will appear and be experienced in that moment.