These smaller works operate as a kind of three-dimensional drawing within Dunhill and O’Brien’s practice. Some begin with rocks, landforms or earlier projects; others emerge from an ongoing interest in souvenirs, models and objects that stand in for something elsewhere or at another scale.
They are also part of a wider question about how sculpture might be documented. Rather than relying only on photographs, Dunhill and O’Brien sometimes make objects that retain, compress or reimagine aspects of a larger work or encounter. A large-scale installation might reappear as something more portable and manageable.
Their status remains slightly uncertain: part record, part proposition, part souvenir. That ambiguity allows ideas to persist, change format and proportion, and occasionally find their way into later works.
Images 1 and 2: Stone Appreciation: In the Morning
2019, 30 x 38 x 15cm
aluminium
Images 3, 4 and 5: Stone Appreciation: Okasan
2019, 28 x 20 x 15cm
lava Rock, MDF, felt, plywood
Photo: limited edition postcard, painted plywood stand with acrylic.
Images 6 and 7: Stone Appreciation: Otosan
2019, 30 x 50 x 30cm
flocking on jesmonite, vintage brown bowler hat, steel.
Images 8 and 9: Balanced Rock: Selfie
2019, 33 x 36 x 28cm
jesmonite, oil paint, aluminium, souvenir plate of Balanced Rock, Colorado.
Images 10 and 11: Brimham Rock: Upholstered
2019, 50 x 38 x 38
wood, mixed media and linen
Image 12: Mountain Geta
made as part of installation Yama to Ana 2007, completed as single work 2019
50 x 37 x 50cm
wood, fabric geta straps, jesmonite, wooden stool, acrylic sheet.