'Louie'

'Louie' | tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor

touring exhibition 2011-2014

Louise Sauvage is one of Australia’s greatest athletes.  As noted by her friend, Ros Shaw, the most amazing aspect of Louise’s achievements is her capacity to succeed at all stages, “winning over all distances, road or track”.  This covers races distancing 100m right through to 42km marathons.  An achievement difficult to comprehend and even more astounding when you realise that this has all occurred due to the sheer determination of an athlete who competes in a wheelchair.   Louise has faced many challenges and seems to rise above them time and again, and as a world class athlete, has shown other athletes and Australians that it is our own determined efforts which will lead to our own achievements.

I have used the materials traditionally recognised to symbolize sporting success via medal presentations.  That is gold, silver and bronze.  The circular shapes of my piece are a simplification of form to represent success (via medals,) determination (via wheels,) and continuation (the endless cycle of testing oneself.)  Because as Louise Sauvage states, “You’ll never know what you can achieve until you try.”