Louise Paramor

Created by Louise Paramor for the 2010 McClelland sculpture survey & award, Top shelf is a large-scale structural assemblage of brightly coloured, plastic paraphernalia, elevated by a large, alter-like platform. Top shelf forms part of Paramor’s Jam session series which conveys formal engagement with materiality and form, and the value of play and humour in her practice through free experimentation with colour, scale and the method of ‘jamming’ paraphernalia together into formal sculptures. The series has been described by the artist as ‘a compilation where architecture and sculpture collide’.

The deliberate and considered installation of Top shelf within the natural environment of McClelland pushes the boundaries of this central concern. By situating the work within the natural landscape, free from anthropogenic effects, Paramor amplifies the distinctly man-made aesthetic of the assemblage and its materials, while inviting further reflection on the viewer’s built and natural environments.