William Versace

William Versace's plaster wall sculptures have been created using silicon cast moulds from the shipwreck SS Minmi, an old screw steamer, which set voyage from Melbourne in 1937 en route to Newcastle. On May 13, 1937 the ship crashed ashore in Kamay/Botany Bay and since that day parts of the wreckage remain scattered around the Kamay coastline – corroding, oxidising, and decaying the steel back into the elements it once was before it was forged into such an object. With minimal intervention Versace paid particular interest in the large part of the wreck, still above water, that has been decaying back into the ocean over time.

Framed in rich lustrous blackwood these unique achromic works draw attention to the veins, crinkles, cracks and lines which are the result of almost 90 years of corrosion. "What you see is a moment frozen in time – when the salt and the water and the bacteria became enmeshed with steel and iron and decay and created what it created," says Versace.