Fountains is a solo presentation of work by Sydney-based artist Mike Hewson. Operating where fine art and engineering come together, this series of sculptures is a playful exploration of what exactly is needed to sustain life, and what ingenious, imaginative solutions might look like.

What is the purpose of an art gallery? In Fountains, Hewson proposes it can provide hydration on demand or lend itself to a game of basketball. Thanks to Marcel Duchamp, the fountain has been fodder for conceptual art for more than a century. In this instance, Hewson has installed plumbed and fully-functional drinking fountains in the space of an art gallery. These have been built from: custom-moulded, extra heavy-duty plastic buckets, reused building materials and leftover materials hoarded from past public projects. The centre-piece of the exhibition is Palm Hoop, an NBA regulation net, hoop and backboard clamped to an up-rooted palm tree. Its fragile root system wrapped in plastic, the tree is tensioned down with heavy-duty strapping.

Originally trained as a civil engineer before heading to art school, Hewson applies his expertise and technical know-how to this large-scale exhibition. Fountains uses a vocabulary taken from public facilities and utilities in order to explore basic needs, survival and what is needed to sustain life, whether it be hydration, sport and recreation or installation art. For Fountains, an intriguing range of materials is employed, from a living entity, to mass-produced sporting equipment, to architectural infrastructure, to re-purposed waste materials.

Michael Lett 3 East St is housed in an historic building which was formerly home to a Samoan Baptist Church and a Methodist Meeting Hall. With Fountains, Hewson re-imagines the building as a playful site for experimentation, one that runs the gamut with a range of approaches, from the functional, to the artistic and from the conceptual to the experiential.

Press release courtesy Michael Lett