What’s My Scene: Peter Syndicas sees figurative forms everywhere
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, sculptor Peter Syndicas reflects on his long fascination with twigs, and his large-scale work Celestial Lifeform.
Where was your first Adelaide exhibition, and how did it go?
The first time I exhibited my work was at The Waterhouse Art Prize in 2005. Until then my work was very much a thing I did on the side as a form of meditation that I kept to myself with absolutely no intention of taking any further. I’d just moved from Melbourne to Adelaide with my family for work and had a little shed where I would tinker on my twig forms. When a friend came over and saw what I was doing she suggested I should enter the Waterhouse Art Prize. I was very much outside of the art scene at the time and had never heard of the Waterhouse before, but when I looked it up the cut off for entry was in less than a week. At the time I collecting a lot of small twigs with abstract figurative forms and replicating them on a larger scale using chicken wire which I would then smooth over with wax.
For the entry I just had to send an image of the work which I did, but I lied and filled in the medium as bronze. To my shock when my entry was accepted I had a month to deliver my finished bronze work to the Museum. I managed to find a foundry in Adelaide that helped me to sand cast my very first bronze and went to Bunnings to buy some wet and dry sandpaper which took me 2 solid weeks to polish by hand. Fortunately I managed to deliver my first bronze sculpture on time at the museum, and I was so inspired when it sold. I never found out where that sculpture ended up but I would be very keen to hear from the person that bought it as that sale changed my life quite significantly.
What is your artist origin story?
I was born into a very artistic family but I had quite a large chip on my shoulder about that. I really craved a normal family that spoke about news and sport as opposed to art. Every family holiday was to visit galleries and museums and I wanted Disneyland! For most of my growing years I didn’t appreciate how fortunate I was and I never had any intention of becoming an artist.
My origin story happened quite unexpectedly on a camping trip with friends back in 1997. At night by the campfire I searched for a twig that I could hold two marshmallows at a time. I found a great twig and cleaned it up with my new pocketknife before enjoying all my treats. Once I’d finished, I just caught an angle on my twig and I just saw this beautiful abstract female figurative form. Then when I looked up at the trees, I could see these dynamic figurative forms everywhere. I can’t describe just how significantly this moment had jolted my life. From that moment I began an obsessive collection of twigs from different places which I kept in old shoe boxes. Then one day one of my favourite twigs was damaged which inspired me to figure out how I could replicate the twig form. I started experimenting and developed a way of weaving chicken wire into my forms. Throughout all of this time I never thought of what I was doing as art. The Waterhouse then changed that perspective for me and I began to realise there was a lot more to this.
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
I was pretty naive to the scene when I arrived in Adelaide in 2005. My first impressions on Adelaide in general was the high level of creativity in all fields, especially with all the festival celebrations. As my work began to develop I got to the next stage as an artist of hunting for a gallery. At that time there were a lot more commercial galleries on the scene. I drew up my list of the top ten galleries and started at my personal favourite Hill Smith Gallery. I couldn’t believe my luck when Sam Hill Smith personally came and visited my studio and booked me in for my first solo show. I was so grateful and honoured to have my work on show in such a great gallery. There is a certain buzz that happens when you feel that support of becoming part of a galleries stable of artists.
Unfortunately over the years there has been a slow decline in the number of commercial galleries, and that’s across Australia in general. I suppose in the past commercial galleries were the sole way to get your work out there as an artist where-as now social media has enabled artists to directly expose their works on mass to a wide audience. That being said, I’m personally a little old school on this. I still much prefer to be part of a stable at a gallery. I do believe there will be a strong resurgence in commercial galleries in the near future as social media overloads the market and people hunger once again for that discerning eyes of great galleries.
How has your own work evolved since you first started?
My work has always stemmed from an almost obsessive fascination and adoration of organic forms. It all started by seeing a figurative form in a twig. The thing is when I look at a twig I see an abstract human figure frozen in time. To me it’s like capturing a life drawing class when a model is in a great composition. Once I have that inspiration the next part is to recreate it on a larger scale. That part for me has been constantly evolving. Initially I started with chicken wire and wax. Then it evolved to bronze. I especially loved bronze as I loved the contrast of casting these wphemeral twig forms in the immortal medium of bronze.
Then my friend Silvio Apponyi kept pushing me to work in stone, but I couldn’t figure out how I could do these delicate twig forms in stone. That’s when I discovered a piece of coral on a beach one day that reminded me of an old Greek statue with missing limbs. That small discovery led to my evolution into stone work. Initially I loved working in Carrara marble but then I discovered how many amazing stone varieties were available in South Australia. Initially I sourced from quarries but then I loved exploring finding rocks by the side of the roads and bringing them to life. More recently I submitted for a commission which was to create a major bespoke sculpture with a light feature. The sculpture would be suspended from a ceiling in a large space and I had a vision of creating a gigantic twig form in bronze. It pushed me to develop a completely new technique of working in bronze in order to dramatically reduce the weight of the structure. My vision was successful and with the support of the great team at Iguana Creative and Guildhouse we managed to create Celestial Life Form at Burnside Village which is currently the largest suspended bronze sculpture in the world.
What is it about your next body of work that you’re most excited or nervous to share with the world?
I have just delivered an exhibit for SALA Festival at Coco Republic. I’ve been looking forward to this exhibit in particular as its location enables me to include my monolithic sculpture Celestial Life Form as part of the exhibit. I’m also a finalist for the SALA Contemporary Art Prize this year, so I have my fingers crossed on that.
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
Silvio Apponyi has been there from the very start for me. He has always been so generous and giving of his wealth of knowledge for me as well as countless others. He pushed me to work in stone when I had absolutely no interest in it and now carving in stone is one of my greatest joys. I’m eternally grateful to him.
Favourite Adelaide venue to exhibit at?
I recently exhibited in Art Images Gallery in Norwood for the first time and it was such a wonderful experience. There is such a great vibe in the gallery thanks in great part to the dynamic duo of Suzie Lockery and Olivia Dryden. In a time when a lot of galleries on the scene are closing Art Images seems to be going gangbusters.
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Dream artist to exhibit alongside?
I’ve been so fortunate to have already exhibited alongside some amazing artists. The two in particular that stand out for me were Janine Mackintosh and Belinda Schawel. Sometimes it just clicks, in both cases when the exhibits were put together it just felt so natural and magical.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
With all my works I always pay homage to the origins of where I collected the twigs or stones from. Origins are always a huge thing for me. If I were ever to do a collaboration, I would ideally like to collaborate with First Nations storytelling, with someone like Uncle Mickey O’Brien.
Where is your next Adelaide exhibition, and how do you hope it will go?
For SALA I will be showing in Coco Republic. I always love doing something for SALA but this time it’s in a whole new location, and I think it’s a first for Burnside Village, so my fingers are crossed that it works! I’ll be giving an artist talk there on August 27 to so please feel welcome to join in.
Peter Syndicas: Life Forms runs from August 1 – 31 at Coco Republic, Burnside Village, as part of SALA Festival 2026
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