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The doors of Curtin’s sculpture department were still swinging behind him when Christian de Vietri first took Perth’s art scene by storm eight years ago.

 

Since then doors have opened in almost every direction for the 28-year-old, the latest taking him to New York City where he just completed his Masters degree at Columbia University.

 

He’s exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia, undertaken residencies in Stockholm and Versailles, and won so many grants and awards the term ‘wunderkind’ barely seems apt.

 

The Kalgoorlie-born sculptor is driven by a profound interest in the unknown. By creating pieces that are outwardly accessible yet perplexing in nature and detail, he reminds us there’s still much to discover about human existence.

 

“With the figurative works there are elements that are familiar,” he says. “You understand aspects of the piece, you engage with it immediately on a certain level.

 

But at the same time there are parts of the object that create an experience of uncertainty and make you question what you’re seeing.

 

“In the nature of these pieces is an acceptance that there’s a lot in this world we don’t know about, and some things we simply cannot know.”

 

Christian’s latest collection explores the changing aspects of human belief, from the primordial sublime to the invention of an unknowable being to the supernatural deified-self.

 

The six-piece installation was created for his Masters degree in fine art which he completed on a merit scholarship at the beginning of last year. It features three red neon works and three distinct sculptures installed across different levels to create an integrated system of light and form.

 

“When you enter the gallery you see the first neon, which is basically blown glass made to look like a rope, hanging vertically between the first staircase,” Christian says. “Then you go up another staircase to find the second neon, then another to see the third. The sculptures are installed horizontally along that floor.”

 

One of those pieces is a draped figure – an unknowable being – made of acrylic polymer and vinyl paint.

 

The second, titled beginning is the end is the beginning, is a campfire created out of burnt cast aluminium sticks.

 

And the third, perhaps the most interesting in terms of material, is a human form with “vampire” characteristics.

 

“This one was made with a light absorbing, light emitting plastic I developed over months of experimentation with various chemicals and dyes,” Christian says. “My studio in New York City became a kind of laboratory in the process.

 

“When you see this piece in the gallery, it’s in its light absorbent state. The night effect, that is the glowing effect, is not something the viewer will typically see.”

 

In this way light becomes its own force in the installation, working with and acting upon the objects rather than merely drawing attention to them. As the vampire-like figure absorbs light from the neons, the draped being rejects it.

The project marks a significant shift in terms of “the place” Christian’s work comes from.

 

Since his first collection of photographed street objects, which he produced during his undergraduate studies at Curtin, Christian has generally made art that turns real-life references into an ideal or imaginary form. His 2004 exhibition The Nature of Things for example, was informed by the banality of modern icons such as refrigerators and crowd control barriers.

 

“There are fundamental ideas in my work that haven’t changed,” he says. “The interest in presence and absence for one. But my way of working has become more introspective, and I don’t necessarily need the art to lead to clearly articulated resolutions.

 

“The objects come from a place in my imagination that I have faith in even though I don’t fully understand it. This is what keeps me going. But feeling comfortable in this gap has only really come in the two years I’ve been away.”

 

At the moment the former sculpture lecturer is completing three public art projects: one at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NYC; another in downtown Manhattan commissioned by the Public Art Fund; and the third here in Perth for St Georges Cathedral.

 

“Living in New York has forced me into a very sharp focus, and lead to new places in my mind.” he says. “Almost as a survival mechanism, because there’s so much going on here I live in a perpetual state of extroversion. This has also lead to deeper states of self-reflection.

 

“I think it’s had a distillation effect in terms of knowing what I like and what I want to create. My ambitions have a way of finding form and context here – and they’re growing.

 

“The public artworks will be a way for me to really become part of the city’s fabric, while still keeping my ties with Perth.”

 

Christian has exhibited at Goddard de Fiddes Gallery (2005, 2006, 2007), the National Gallery of Australia (2005), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (2006), the TarraWarra Museum of Art (2007), the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane (2008) and the Art Gallery of Western Australia (2009).