Spotlight On: Elena Murgia, sculptor & TBSSS alumni
Pictured: Elena carving marble at TBSSS.
Name: Elena Murgia
What years did you attend classes at TBSSS?
I attended classes at TBSSS, Erskineville, from 2017 to 2022. I started guest teaching in 2024 after an intense period of shadowing and assisting Wendy Black during the Wednesday classes.
What was unique about your TBSSS experience?
TBSSS is and will always be central in my life as I started right there my artistic journey. It’s a place where I found not only physical space, but more importantly emotional space to embrace my potential and develop my artistic research with confidence.
What was your first impression walking in to TBSSS at Erskineville?
It was the second week of my new life in Australia when I walked into TBSSS for the first time and I was looking for new challenges, looking for a way to reinvent myself.
It was love at first sight! A stunning space filled with light and beauty. Some of Tom Bass’s sculptures and maquettes are still in the Studio, his soul was and still is in the air.
What is special about TBSSS?
TBSSS still cherishes a classic atelier style of teaching and practice for sculpture. In my opinion, it is the best way to slow down our mind when embracing ideas that need to be translated into form, space and emotions. It is a method that represents not only the legacy of Tom Bass himself, but the legacy of classic sculpture which it’s disappearing in many academies and contemporary art schools.
How have your studies at the TBSSS prepared you for your practice?
My background of design probably helped me a little to be introduced to sculpture, but at TBSSS I learned how to overcome the difficult passage from designing and crafting items that respond to fashion, to creating pieces that respond to art!
There is a huge difference between the two worlds. The first one takes in consideration the social, cultural and economic environmental ramifications of the work, while contemporary art has content and deep meaning, in my case is a condensation of intimate stories and feelings translated into 3D forms. The teachers I met at TBSSS helped me to understand that fundamental difference.
The School offered me wonderful opportunities, between regular classes and workshops with artists from different backgrounds. These experiences not only elevated the quality of my learning, but they have been life changing opportunities for my development as an artist.
The weight of dreams, Elena Murgia, Carrara marble, iron and sandstone, 2021, 58 x 20 x 18cm
What is your favourite medium to work in?
The first time I worked in marble I fell in love with its undeniable beauty and extraordinary ability to become visually soft.
The act of detracting material revealing forms and human expression allows me to let go of my feelings, both those I am in peace with and those I fight against to. Carving tests my ability at many levels, both physical and psychological and it takes me to a place where I am comfortable with my vulnerability.
Even though my practice is mainly based on stone carving, I love to experiment with other mediums that allow me to evolve my language and tell my story.
What inspires your practice today?
I spent part of my life working in a industry where women’s representation is often reduced to rigid and tight outfits, an image made of small movements, not much breathing and lots of magazine pictures promoting the illusion of a perfect size.
In my sculptures I want to explore the other side of female representation expressing strength, resilience and power from my personal perspective. My process is like an act of sublimation of this complex matter and I often use symbols that become talismans enclosing or releasing an inner form in most of my figurative works.
What lessons / skills / concepts have stayed with you from your time at TBSSS?
At TBSSS I developed and trained the ability to see forms and space in depth and to capture the essence of what I want to express in my work.
Tell us about the work you are exhibiting as part of the 50th exhibition:
“Like an iceberg plunging beneath the surface, layers of consciousness cradle the weight of dreams”
Anything else you'd like to share?
Between students and volunteers, those who were lucky enough to be mentored by Tom Bass and those like myself that can perceive his soul still alive inside the dusty studio, I would like to acknowledge that TBSSS is a unique place where we all come together spending our best energies to preserve the legacy of a superb and distinguished Australian artist. I am chuffed to exhibit one of my pieces alongside Tom Bass’s work.
Thank you Elena!
Click here to view more of Elena’s work.
