Collection
Ammonite II
Dan Clemmett (b. 1977)
Ammonite II
Steel, Harlequin paint
1.2m high
2008
Montgomery Trust accession 2010
installed May 2010
Dan Clemmett is inspired by the inherent interaction between products of contemporary culture and myth both past and present. Clemmett explores this through the reconstruction of discarded and recycled materials.
Growing up in a panel beaters workshop led Clemmett to embrace unusual source materials that many would consider a waste product. He is particularly interested in the nature of the everyday object and he seeks to re-contextualise these often ‘invisible' objects to provoke reactions and make the viewer question their place in the world.
Ammonite II is a poignant muse for Clemmett in his exploration of the past and present as this pre-historic being is understood to be an example of mass extinction due to global climate change:
‘Humankind is itself as mystical and as unknowable as the Ammonite; both the past and the present are unable to be grasped. The sculptural form asks us to ponder the traces we leave behind, both material and conceptual. I offer a new take on old forms, playing with a classical image in a contemporary way.
My work presents the hopeful proposition that it is possible to rework old material, to learn from the past in order to make something new, but there is also something ironic in the use of material and form. The past, while re-worked, never disappears. It can never be ‘worked over', made smooth, coherent; instead, it asserts and reinserts itself.'