GARRY GREENWOOD & HIS INSTRUMENTS

For the most part Garry Greenwood's work is engaged with the aesthetic redefinition of objects. Without loosing the inherent identity, or removing it, he shifts their functionality.

His use of leather as a sculptural medium sets up paradox and illusion and this is a recurrent theme present in Garry’s work. His passion for music provoked his almost predictable investigation into the accoustic properties of leather. Ultimately this led to a collection of playable sculptures.

"The additional dimension of sound creates an even wider range of possibilities and in combination with established visual concepts will undoubtedly be a strong influence in future directions of my work"

Melbourne University's Grainger Museum held a major exhibition of Garry’s work entitled Leather Alchemy. Perhaps more than any other of his exhibitions Leather Alchemy gives an icisive insight into his practice as a maker and musician – click here to visit the exhibition online

Karlin Love's work with Garry Greenwood began with a performance for a 1994. Following that performance, Garry built the first of the bowhorns which use saxophone mouthpieces. Karlin premiered the new instrument within a recital of Australian clarinet music in the U.S.A. later that year. She ultimately founded the Chordwainers as a leather instrument ensemble. Karlin works with the Tasmanian Leather Orchestra project of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston and the orchestra is based on Garry’s instruments. She plays Bowhorns, the Black Rose, Pocopods, Mountain Harp and String Drums designed and made by Garry.

Greenwood's instruments are played, seriously, by interstate and overseas musicians, including Don Burrows, Brian Brown, and Barry Tuckwell.

Garry's long-term interest in theatre motivated him to work with the Launceston Repertory Theatre designing everything from sets, to props, to promotional posters. He also worked extensively with TasDance, Tasmania’s oldest contemporary dance company

From the early 1990s until the time of his death in 2005, Garry lived and worked just below the tree line on rugged Mount Barrow in Tasmania’s north east with his partner Lynn Evans, a musician and educator who collaborated with Garry on numerous projects.

Garry held 26 one-man exhibitions, was a member of the Leder-Gilde in Munich, Germany, and has work represented in many major national and international collections including the:

National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
University of Tasmania