Kate Stehr, If I Lift My Eyes to the Horizon, It’s You That I Might Miss (ART & OBJECTS 2025)

Photos:

Bernie Fischer

Country

Australia

Kate’s sculptural practice focuses on timber forms and the creative reuse of found objects, valuing their embedded history and memory. Her work often explores the absurd, challenging conventional expectations of function and form. This body of work was developed during a residency in Finland in January. The sculptural forms are informed by snow- and moss-covered rock mounds, the undulating terrain, and shifting northern skies. The works attempt to echo the forest’s quiet beauty—its softened, snow-laden forms, and the fleeting brilliance of light through trees. They respond to the landscape’s subtle marks: animal tracks, plants, fungi, and lichen etched into snow. There’s a quiet pull toward open sky, and within it, a sense of longing—for light, for warmth, and for home. Hand carved from laminated timber, the surfaces are overtly tactile and illicit touch from the viewer.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.