The Syndicate

Simon Gilby’s previous exhibitions were primarily of small-scale sculptures, but he had an increasing desire to

scale the works up for an installation of life-sized figures that would work as a group of intersecting characters.

Ron Wise proposed that a group of patrons with an interest in Gilby’s work, each contribute funds enabling the

artist to make ten individual life-sized works which together would form the installation. The members of this

syndicate were to have no artistic input into the project, and at the project’s conclusion, each sculpture would

be assigned to each member of the syndicate. The management of the Syndicate Project was primarily taken up

by the prominent Western Australian art collector, Lloyd Horn.

Whilst the installation needed to be viewed as a whole, each sculpture worked as an individual entity. The sculptures were principally made from etched, welded and forged steel, combined with other incidental materials. Initially the forms were created from casts of people known to the artist, but as they progressed, they morphed into psychological portraits of imagined protagonists.