House and Home: Malcom Bywaters

The subject of this paper, House and home is Malcom Bywaters, an Australian sculptor and academic acknowledged for his research specific to memory and domestic family space. Bywaters creative output and published research reflect his interest in the built environment, combined with childhood memory. In this paper I discuss the artist’s origins living on a rural Australian farm, his university years, international travel and the development of his interest in the impact of memory and architectural form on the creative sensibility, starting with his steel sculptural works from 1984 to the key artwork Finding Home, 2012. A sculptural biplane image constructed of wood and paper mache that symbolises a quest to understand the artist’s childhood up bringing on a rural farm in Victoria, Australia with the adult middle class life he now encapsulates. In the paper I elaborate on the Finding Home sculpture as a biplane motif that intentionally engages the audience in contemplating childhood and, by association, house and home.