Jane designs and makes site specific artworks for public spaces, including parks, playgrounds and memorials. She began her career as a landscape architect, so for her, working with environmental themes and locating her sculpture outdoors was a logical progression. Her awards include the 2020 NSW Landscape Architecture Award for Arkadia Apartments in Alexandria, Jane’s sculpture Natus Ex Igne: Born from Fire, features in the forecourt.
I prefer being outside, making art that will be in the public realm for several decades, or where people can interact with on a daily basis. I love the fact that the public can touch and interact with the artwork. I want people to be able to immerse themselves in my artwork – to walk through it, to touch it, to see how it relates to place and culture.
I love making large scale artwork that relates to its surrounding context. All of my large urban sculpture is in response to a brief and it all relates to an environmental, historical or cultural aspect of the location. I really enjoy unlocking the puzzle of interpretation and how that manifests itself into the artwork design. Much of my work refers to the environment and regeneration, and also mother and child…themes of growth.
Detail from Jane Cavanough’s Korean War Memorial, Moore Park, Sydney
Although I predominantly make urban sculpture, and I am currently making smaller works for the garden. This year, I have not had any large-scale commissions, so I have been making my own domestic scaled sculpture, designed for gardens. This has been a life saver and has certainly stopped me getting depressed. 2020 has been a very strange year, whereby I have lost my income as a self-employed artist, which is why I have focussed on making smaller work that I am able to sell.
I have loved getting back into making my own work, developing my skills and working out the fine detail. The physical nature of making sculpture is totally absorbing.
Jane Cavanough
More of Jane’s work can be found at http://janecavanough.com.au/about/
