Did you know that the grand neo-classical Australia House at the Aldwych in London was designed by Scottish architects?  Alexander Marshall Mackenzie and his son Alexander George Robertson Mackenzie won the commission following an architectural competition (Mackenzie also designed the nearby Waldorf Hotel), using different stones and timbers from Australia, such as Buchan, Caleula and Angaston marbles and black bean timber.  Australia House has another Scottish link – to the author J R Rowling – the interiors being used as the setting for Gringotts Wizarding Bank in the film ‘Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone’.

Celebrating 100 years since the building was opened in 1918, this week the grand interiors have been a backcloth to contemporary sculpture as part of the centenary celebrations.  Against the setting of four of Sydney Nolan’s colourful animated abstract paintings are sculptures by the four members of the artistic Nunan-Cartwright Family. (Nolan was born in 1917 while the building was under construction and is one of Australia’s best known modern artists).  The exhibition works well, with Nolan’s paintings providing an interlinking contrast to, on the one hand, the grand architecture with its crystal chandeliers and, on the other, to the curving, geometric sculptures, many in brilliant white marble including Sollai Cartwright’s interwined ‘Lovers’ and ‘Woman Figure’; others in dark bronze such as Shona Nunan’s ‘Earth Guardian’,‘Life and  powerful ‘Torso’, with patinated and polished bronze in Michael Francis Cartwright’s work including the dramatic ‘Reflection’ and ‘Moon Dance’ and the centrepiece being Jacob Cartwright’s ‘Rising’ a reminder of the sensory experiences of boating in his youth, with the noise of reeds brushing against the side of the boat and the cold touch of the water, experiences repeated in his current home in Europe, using timber and steel and ‘The Space Between Us’ breaking away from his other work in marble.

The title of the exhibition ‘Journeys’ asks the viewer to consider different journeys – the journey of a sculpture from an idea to a finished work; the journeys of a family of artists now living in separate locations to bring their art to London and the journey we all make as we travel in our own boat through both the pleasant experiences and the storms of life.