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c.1840 Yellow Tulip Poplar
370 x 240 x 140cm
Acquired 2020
Invisible is carved, assembled and painted from an aged Yellow Tulip Poplar, its stark black-and-white patterning creating a striking contrast against the surrounding plantings.
The work sits at the intersection of sculpture and painting, with its bold surface activating the timber’s natural grain and form.
Wigley’s intention for the piece is direct: the work explores invisibility, both cultural and personal.
As visitors move around Invisible, its shifting angles and hollowed forms invite careful looking, prompting reflection on what is seen, what is overlooked and what disappears into the background of daily life.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Christabel Wigley
Christabel Wigley is an Australian artist whose practice spans sculpture, painting and installation, often using found or reclaimed materials to explore identity, ageing, nature and the cultural forces that shape visibility.
Her works are characterised by bold graphic surfaces, strong formal silhouettes and a dialogue between the physical body of an object and the layered psychological states it can hold.
Wigley frequently works with timber salvaged from historical or natural contexts, allowing the age, imperfections and memory within the material to become part of the artwork’s meaning.
Her sculptural pieces often operate as hybrids, merging painting and form to question how perception is constructed and how meaning shifts across different vantage points.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Australia, and she continues to develop a body of practice that is both materially grounded and conceptually introspective.
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Exhibitions across public and private galleries in Australia.
Ongoing practice connecting sculpture and painting through surface intervention.
Works centred on themes of visibility, identity, ageing and environmental change.
Use of reclaimed or historically resonant materials as narrative anchors within her sculptures.
WIGLEY AT MONTALTO
Invisible was created in 2019 and acquired for the Montalto collection in 2020.
Crafted from 19th-century Tulip Poplar, the sculpture reflects Wigley’s interest in the relationship between nature and culture, and how both can be rendered unseen or undervalued within contemporary life.
The artist writes that the work responds to the invisibility of nature in a culture that continually supersedes it, as well as her own personal experience of becoming less visible as she ages.
She draws a connection between the diminishing visibility of women and the diminishing visibility of the environment, noting that both are foundational to life yet often pushed to the margins.
Placed at the beginning of the Sculpture Trail, Invisible acts as a bold marker for the visitor’s journey, its high-contrast surface offering a dramatic first encounter that sets the tone for close looking and thoughtful engagement.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Website: http://christabelwigley.com.auBio /
CV: http://christabelwigley.com.au/Bibliography/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christabelwigley/
