Belco Arts

Stone and Shadow

Working primarily with hard, unfigured stone, Senden Blackwood investigates how illumination transforms weight into movement and solidity into quiet radiance.

Exhibitions

Event Details

Category

Exhibitions

Event Starts

Aug 28, 2026 18:00

Event Ends

Oct 11, 2026

Venue

Belconnen Arts Centre

Location

118 Emu Bank, Belconnen ACT, Australia

Stone and Shadow explores the dialogue between stone, light, and perception. Rooted in the natural world, Senden Blackwood’s sculptural practice distills organic rhythms into abstract lines, textures, and forms. Working primarily with hard, unfigured stone, he investigates how light travels across curves and edges—how illumination transforms weight into movement and solidity into quiet radiance.

As the day unfolds, shifting light reveals new dimensions within each work, inviting viewers to experience stone as a living, responsive material. This interplay of surface and shadow becomes a language in itself—subtle, temporal, and contemplative.

The exhibition presents a collection of large freestanding works alongside smaller tabletop and wall-mounted pieces, arranged to harness the gallery’s natural light. Together, they form an immersive environment that invites slow looking and sensory engagement.

A short film accompanying the exhibition traces the five-year creation of Blackwood’s monumental work, completed in 2022, offering a deeper insight into the physical and philosophical dimensions of his practice. Stone and Shadow reveals not only the endurance and craft of stone carving but also its potential for stillness, transformation, and grace.

About the Artist

Senden Blackwood is an Australian sculptor whose elegant, elemental works reveal the quiet transformation of form and matter. Endlessly curious about the principles of life and evolution, he draws inspiration from nature’s generative structures—pods, seeds, shells, and cocoons—evoking stillness, mystery, and organic flow. Blackwood deftly reconciles the arduous grind of stone carving with an instinct for subtlety and refinement. His sculptures appear serene yet pulse with the tension of their making—where gesture meets geology, and intuition and endurance shape the quiet beauty of natural form. Exhibiting nationally and internationally since 2007, he has received numerous awards, residencies, and public commissions.

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