Wanda Gillespie

Past Exhibition
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
  • Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
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Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures, 2020,
Cedar, brass, stainless steel, varnish,
2180 x 1200 x 200mm

The abacus has been a recurring theme in Wanda Gillespie’s work which took on a new symbolic resonance for her in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her thoughts moved from the abacus as a mystical artefact (counting the immeasurable qualities of the spirit world) to the economic systems we find ourselves inextricably a part of. Their potential collapse and need for restructure are crucial considerations as we rethink our direction for being an environmentally sustainable race with a social conscience. It is well known that economic growth often has a negative impact on the planet so the real ‘cost’ of things is not as straightforward as counting gross domestic product alone. A new method for counting is called for that includes the costs of environmental impacts. This concept has given the abacus sculpture at Brick Bay its full name: A Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures. 

Gillespie’s practice is a fusion of traditional craft methods with local materials implemented in contemporary ways. Counting Frame is a complex and ornamentally detailed abacus made from brass and cedar wood. Her research explored the objects used for counting across a range of cultures and time periods as well as studying alternative economic structures. The earliest records of abacus or counting frame were found in ancient Mesopotamia. They have been widely used in eastern Europe, Egypt, Persia and much of Asia. 

As Gillespie recalls, “Within my work I often take known objects and reinvent their purpose, gifting them with more esoteric functions. I enjoy unifying the physical and spiritual worlds and pondering the artists role as artefact producer within a cyclical history of ever rising and falling civilisations.”

Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures
Counting Frame for Alternative Economic Structures

More from this artist

Artist Bio

Wanda Gillespie is an Australian/New Zealand contemporary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Intermedia) from Elam School of Fine Art, Auckland University (2003) and a Master of Fine Arts by Research with First Class Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University (2009).

Her sculptural works and performative actions seek transcendence through the reimagining of known forms.

A belief in the spiritual potency of physical objects drives her work. Through pairings or groupings, like the constellation of stars, a cause and effect occurs, an alchemy of form, material and space. Wood is chosen for it’s energetic qualities, a conduit connecting to whenua/place. A once living growing entity, now ripened for the sculptors chisel, peeling back layers of seasons, to extract a truth in shape from the invisible worlds.

Over the past decade she has refined her craft as a woodcarver through the creation of evocative portrait sculptures, combining detailed and abstracted, ancient and contemporary form. Familiar objects, are reimagined with alternate uses, history, culture and ceremony. By using traditional craft techniques in contemporary ways, she questions known histories and the nature of reality.

Gillespie has established a significant practice with numerous solo exhibitions, awards and residencies. She was recently awarded the 2020 Wallace Art Awards Jury prize, and has been finalist and highly commended in many sculpture prizes including the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Molly Morpeth Canaday 3D Award, National Contemporary Art Award, Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Waiheke Small Sculpture Prize, John Fries Memorial Prize, the Blake Prize, and the National Sculpture Prize. She received the Art and Australia Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award in 2014. Her solo projects have been funded by the Australian Arts Council, City of Melbourne, Arts Victoria, Creative New Zealand, and Heart of the City (Auckland Council).

Recent solo exhibitions include Higher Thinking (Vivian Gallery), Higher Thought Forms (Sanderson Contemporary), Levitation Practice (MARS Gallery), The Ceremonial Processions of Dreamers (Lindberg Galleries), The Antarctic Kingdom of Gondwanaland (Craft Victoria and Fehily Contemporary), Into the Void (Linden Contemporary Centre for the Arts), and Tana Swiwi, (Westpace, Melbourne).

Wanda has taken several artist residencies in Indonesia through Asialink and Arts Victoria and was artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, through the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

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