Jon Eiseman and Anne Conron

Wharf Road Studios are the art studios of Jon Eiseman and Anne Conron in Stanley in north west Tasmania. Jon’s artwork is predominantly bronze sculpture. He is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne and Arthouse Gallery in Sydney. Anne’s artwork includes photographic collaborations with Jon Eiseman, mixed media in the museum format of a wunderkammer, and lino prints of Tasmanian wildlife.

Jon Eiseman - Bronze sculpture

A recurring theme in Jon’s sculpture is the metaphorical search for meaning and spirituality in the borderland between the rational world and the surreal lands of dreams and imagination. He explores the theme of a the journey through strange and unfamiliar landscapes, inhabited by people travelling in a timeless world. Their voyage, through forests and oceans seems mysteriously  purposeful yet enigmatic. Through the development of symbolic imagery he creates sculptures that have a dreamlike and poetic quality as if drawn from the inner landscape of the subconscious. Jon’s work is within the genres of surrealism and magic realism .

Jon’s bronzes begin life as wax sculptures. He models the wax in his shed/studio , a process that can take many weeks. When the wax sculpture is completed to his satisfaction, it is cut up and cast into bronze at Mal Wood Foundry in Melbourne. Jon then guides the reassembly of the pieces which are welded together. He creates the patination on the surface of the bronze using a gas torch and a variety of chemical concoctions.

Photography - by Anne Conron and Jon Eiseman

“For some time we have worked together in the creation of dreamlike, surreal photographs which complement Jon’s sculpture exhibitions, but also have taken on a life of their own. A prominent focal point in many of his sculptures is the solitary man in the suit or overcoat. We use the same imagery in the photographs, but the figures, even when there are several of them, are (almost ) always Jon. He sometimes wears a mask, and always an op-shop suit or overcoat. The enigmatic character acts in a theatre of the absurd against a backdrop of the natural world, creating a pathway into the world of the subconscious.”