It’s pouring down with rain as I meet Judith Abell on the corner of the street near her studio. Her studio is located in one of these amazing places that are tucked up in the rabbit warrens of old Hobart buildings. We climb the narrow stairs, with warped walls and a series of doors, to finally make it to her studio…I find myself short of breath.

Judith is out of breath as well, but it’s not from climbing those stairs - she has been racing around all day, flat out with back-to-back meetings, stopping off quickly along the way to do the compulsory hunting and gathering around the local tip shops to pick up various materials.

She opens the door to her modest studio and as I enter I trip over something that looks like a TV aerial. I apologise profusely as I try to untangle myself without breaking anything, or cause some sort of avalanche of random materials cluttered around her workshop. She lets me know she cleaned up for me. I laugh nervously. Judith’s studio is packed to the brim, a jungle of fantastic materials and objects that have been salvaged from the tip shop or somewhere along the way.

“There is so much material out there, it really bothers me to buy new. I do a tour of duty of the tip shop on a really regular basis, probably every two weeks I go to at least two of them. For years I have had this fascination with the whole concept of the junk shop. I guess, you never know what you’re going to find and there is always some kind of treasure…there is that classic statement that one persons trash is another’s treasure, it’s exciting every time I go,”

Judith said.

I compose myself, take a deep breath, and press the record button on my portable voice recorder, armed with questions. “So Judith how would you describe your work?” I ask.  She looks and smiles. She is all too familiar with the generic art questions.

“I have a complete fascination with materials. I don’t think it necessarily matters what the materials are, although I think I prefer the ordinary, the normally unseen, the stuff that passes most people by. Just looking around here, I have Venetian blinds, old shop shelfing, I have an obsession with collecting,” she explains.

Judith Abell is not only a Sculptor but an architect, designer, and a freelance arts writer for well known art and design magazines.

“It’s busy, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. My work in architecture is really busy, stressful, and full on every day so doing the art stuff really helps it…now people are saying ‘hey Jude would you come and talk to us about this because we really like the fact your doing design and art’…What happens with my sculpture practice from my architecture experience is there is an understanding of how materials go together. The project management you need in architecture really helps for getting art projects done”.

Judith has gained so much knowledge and skill from working across all these disciplines, she tells me she feels as if she has an unfair advantage over other designers. However, after working hard for 10 years, I think she deserves it.  Her years of experience in architecture, design and writing - blended with her strong sense of materials and aesthetics - have helped her secure public art commissions, fellowships, residencies and this year the Moorilla scholarship for 2010.

“With things like Moorilla I didn’t think I had very much chance of winning it…. I saw a Moorilla exhibition in my first year and I remember getting excited about what could be possible with the money from that, I thought wow, wouldn’t it be great to win that.”

As I look around her studio, Judith’s sculptures rest, quietly waiting until they are completed. All her sculptural pieces are mainly made from recycled and salvaged materials,

“I would like to think I’m green in my thinking but we are all hypocrites when it comes down to it.”

Judith’s refined finishes and attention to detail create beautiful organic works that transcend the material’s previous life. Her sense of aesthetics is tightly in tune with the material she is using, always allowing the material to guide the making of the work.

What I find most appealing about Judith’s work is they way she marries her materials with space. Each sculpture responds and relates to the area it inhabits. Like a living plant her work seems to breathe, move and respond, creating shadows, reflecting light or fluttering with the wind. Her works are never just ‘plonked’ in a space, rather they are carefully considered within the sensibility and understanding of place.

This intimate understating of material and space allows Judith to create works that are both gentle and powerful.

“I’m only just beginning to hit my stride in terms of being an architect, I’m only just beginning to get somewhere in terms of being an artist. I really like thinking about how those things can come together.”

I press stop on the recorder; we have been talking for more than half an hour. It is dark outside now. I don’t mind though, and neither does she. I finish by saying that I can’t wait to see what she makes for the 2010 Moorilla exhibition, laughing, she replies, “Neither can I.”

By Shauna Mayben