Sydney Museum Presents Stephen Birch

The sculptures and large-scale installations of Australian artist Stephen Birch are the focus of a new exhibition at the MCA this autumn, Stephen Birch: looking out my back door. The Sydney-based artist, who was born in Melbourne in 1961, creates works that unsettle our sense of the familiar and transform everyday objects, drawing viewers into parallel worlds.

The exhibition is Birch's first major museum show and features creations made of fibreglass, papier-mache, polyurethane and resin. Visitors can expect to see handcrafted plant forms, human figures and urbanite objects such as car tyres and chandeliers taking on human characteristics. His sculptures evoke complex states of mind and act as reflections upon society and culture.

Birch has exhibited widely throughout Australia and New Zealand over the past two decades. His work draws upon mythology, art history and popular culture to create enigmatic yet humorous scenarios. Trees and the human figure are recurring motifs in Birch's art. One installation Cosmos 2004, features a series of heads which take on a likeness to well-known artist colleagues. An instantly recognisable Spiderman appears in another.

For the duration of the exhibition a large sculpture will be installed on the MCA front lawn which appears to be a tall leafless tree-trunk that has tied itself into a knot.

MCA Design has produced a full-colour publication to accompany the exhibition, featuring essays by MCA Curator Vivienne Webb and New York-based artist and writer Jeff Gibson.

This exhibition continues the MCA's commitment to present a range of Australian and international contemporary artists, with Birch's exhibition complementing a major retrospective of work by British-born artist Craigie Horsfield which also opens this autumn.

A free gallery floor talk about the exhibition will be presented by Artspace Executive Director Blair French at 2.30pm, Tuesday 1 May. -- www.mca.com.au