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Repurposed tractor, spray paint, expanding foam
Acquired 2005
Abstractor transforms an old tractor into a vivid, heavily textured sculptural object using expanding foam and layers of spray paint.
The work retains the familiar silhouette of the machine while obscuring and exaggerating its form, creating a dense, organic surface that appears to melt, swell, or calcify over time. Positioned on open ground along the Sculpture Trail, the piece invites visitors to slow down and experience the interplay between rural machinery, material experimentation, and the surrounding landscapes
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jessie Cacchillo & Craig Waddell
Jessie Cacchillo and Craig Waddell collaborated on Abstractor, combining an interest in repurposed materials with a playful, highly tactile approach to surface and form. Although limited public information exists about Cacchillo’s independent practice, her collaboration with Waddell demonstrates a shared willingness to experiment with unconventional materials and transform everyday objects into expressive sculptural gestures.
Waddell, known primarily as a painter, brings a strong gestural sensibility to the work, allowing colour, texture and material behaviour to carry emotional weight.
Waddell’s broader practice often explores expressive mark making, colour, and texture, whether on canvas or in three-dimensional form. In Abstractor, these painterly instincts are applied sculpturally. Expanding foam becomes a physical extension of his gestural vocabulary, building layers that blur the boundary between object and abstraction. The choice to rework a tractor positions the sculpture within a rural context, aligning with Montalto’s agricultural setting while transforming a utilitarian machine into something fantastical and unfamiliar.
Cacchillo’s involvement supports the collaborative reimagining of the tractor as both subject and surface, inviting viewers to reconsider the role of farm machinery in shared cultural and environmental narratives.
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS – CRAIG WADDELL
Multiple exhibitions across Australia featuring Waddell’s expressive painting and sculptural work
Recognised for a gestural, highly textured approach to material and form
Established exhibiting artist with a focus on colour, movement and emotional resonance in contemporary practice
Expansive body of work spanning painting, sculpture and collaborative projects
CACCHILLO & WADDELL AT MONTALTO
Abstractor was created in 2005 and acquired by Montalto in the same year. The sculpture expands upon Waddell’s expressive material language while grounding the work in the collaborative partnership between Cacchillo and Waddell.
Its placement in the landscape allows the blue and white surface treatments to shift subtly with the light, weather and seasons, and the familiar outline of a tractor becomes a point of connection for visitors exploring the agricultural environment of the estate. The work sits comfortably within Montalto's collection as an example of playful, materially driven experimentation.
FURTHER INFORMATION
