Artist Feature - Rhys Cousins
Rhys Cousins is a multidiscliplinary artist based in Melbourne.
Blending a formal education in landscape architecture with works across sculpture, installation, and digital screens. Cousins’ practice is an investigation into the contemporary urban experience through the changing nature of landscape.
His practice provokes thought about the impact of technology on our everyday lives and the haptic possibilities of an increasingly digital existence. Winner of the 2022 emerging artist award at FortyFive Downstairs for his work Pixel, a textural reimagining of screen technologies, he has been a finalist in numerous art prizes including the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship 2024, the Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2023 and Footscray Art Prize 2023, and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Australia.
"Over the duration of my practice, I have amassed a library of different textures which are used in the creation of new works and is constantly added to. There are two primary types of textures, one is manufactured acrylics and the second is silicone putty.
The manufactured acrylics were originally purchased as prefabricated and act primary as the unifying surface of the finished work. These textures are larger in size and are the last surface cast onto in the process of creating the works. As the practice has developed, I design my own textures through 3D programs which I then get manufactured in acrylic.
Silicone putty, which starts as two parts (a and b) is kneed together to create a chemical reaction which sets into a surface texture. To date there are over 100 textures which are in my library and constantly feed back into my work. These textures act as a record of places I have been from my residencies. To select which texture will be captured through the putty, I investigate the urban landscape in a detective like manner through the lens of a magnifying glass looking for unusual qualities, often drawn to inconsistencies in material surfaces. Textures have been captured from a range of different materials from steel, brick, stencilled concrete and splattered paint through to bark, and small textures from mass manufactured objects.
From these silicone textures I cast on various different ratios and colours of pigmented plaster with the aim to augment the texture through colour. During this process many combinations do not work and find themselves recycled into future works in smaller ground up pieces which itself create a particular texture to the finished piece. These pigmented plaster casts of the silicone are then pieced together into a larger composition where I strive to achieve a unified finish work considering balance, shape and contrast. Once I am happy I place the smaller pigmented pieces on the larger manufactured acrylic and cast the final work, letting it dry for a number of days to weeks before adhering to board."
Photo credits: Emma Bryne & Jane Lui
