Ricky Swallow, ‘Bent Forms #1–#4’, 2025

Ricky Swallow’s Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace commission transforms four everyday stainless steel spoons into something unfamiliar by altering their scale and context.

Bent Forms #1–#4 has been created by Swallow from scaled-up wax prints of actual teaspoons, which he has bent into various shapes. Envisioned as a kind of tableau, or grouping of figures, the sculptures are products of intense studio labour. Their distorted forms reference spoon bending, a trick often performed to demonstrate telekinesis – the supposed manipulation of objects through the mind. Like many of the artist’s works, these sculptures capture an energy that is not visible or immediately understood.