About the Artist
Ben (Benedikt) Osváth
Qualifications: Diploma in Art (Sculpture); Graduate Diploma in Professional Art Studies; Graduate Diploma in Education.
Exhibitions include: The selected final year student exhibition; the Blake Prize; Orthographical Projections – one man show at Irving Sculpture Gallery, Glebe; The Effects of Space – two man show at Civic Centre, Fairfield.
Although chiefly a sculptor, Ben explores other mediums, expanding his creativity to include paintings, frescoes, murals and stage sets. While working as an art teacher for the past 26 years, he also completed over 60 large set designs for plays and productions, and more than 20 large murals.
Over the last 12 years Ben has been organising an Aboriginal Art competition every year for the NAIDOC week, to support the local Aboriginal community.
Born in Sydney, into an artistic European family; with his mother a potter and his father a master sculptor, Ben was surrounded by beauty and quite early recognised that his vocation, too, was to dedicate his life to art.
His mother Eva quite early told him never to sell out, but to follow his heart no matter what. And never to put the material considerations first, as in the final assessment those are quite irrelevant…
“What gets us through life is not the money we make, things we accumulate, or success we achieve, but what we carry in our heads… The ideas we develop, and principles we follow – that’s what makes us either happy or miserable human beings.” is the ethos Eva has passed on to Ben.
Despite their own lifelong struggle as migrants from war-torn Europe, his parents were living examples of artistic integrity, and Ben must have genetically inherited that same inner strength.
Controlled freedom of the Whispering Stone
As a versatile and flexible artist, effortlessly shifting his attention between sculpture, painting, murals and stage sets, Ben is now exploring a combination of media as demonstrated with the Whispering Stone.
The artist is not trying to persuade us, or seduce us into adopting the message, seemingly leaving it up to the viewer to interpret what is seen. At the same time, he not only allows, but demands, a viewer’s participation. In front of the Whispering Stone, it is impossible to remain a passive observer, as the flow of the imagery draws us in, turning us into participants in the experience.
The artist offers a range of directions, apparently leaving the observer a choice, as if just aiding interaction and communication with the sculpture. Yet, he carefully measures the extent of liberty given to the viewer. The artwork tells a story, or a series of stories, which urge us to look carefully, consider wisely, and feel free to follow any of the suggested paths in order to find our own answers.
But, if properly understood, we realise that despite that apparent freedom we ultimately have no choice. We become drawn into the intended pursuit. To those attuned, the intertwined messages bring an exhilarating sense of empowerment, and offer tools to gain better control over their external and internal life.
Power and energy
Ben is not seeking to impress, at least not through obvious, common methods. But he is seeking to educate, as Ben-the-educator is always competing, or working in tandem, with Ben-the-artist.
When searching for the underlying theme in Ben’s work, the motivation, intention, objective and message behind the iconography, we find that it’s all about exploring energy: its nature, its origins, its influx and dissipation, its quality, directions, and purpose. Energy as expressive of a universal life-force: where does it come from, how and why. Where does it go to, how and why. How is it generated, directed, redirected, allocated, distributed, and used. The forms of energy, its patterns, how it keeps appearing and vanishing, pulsating in sync with the heavenly matrix.
But the artist is not exploring energy for energy sake. The central question is what role we, as human beings, have in that interplay. The Whispering Stone artwork is about exploring the inexplicable, and we see a fearless artist in perfect control of that task.
Seeing eye-to-eye with the Gods
In real life, Ben is a gentle man.
In his art, there is nothing gentle about him.
He executes the idea with the fierce precision of a person who has fully mastered the given medium, and the force of someone with a clear vision of its purpose. There is no sign of hesitation, no guesswork, just absolute commitment – as he tackles the extremes, the fundamental and the ultimate, articulating the idea in stone, with the deep certainty of someone on a mission. And the clarity of his vision leaves us breathless.
Master Ananda and the Those-Who-Know place Ben in the same category as
Gina Sinozich and Goomblar Wylo. Having achieved a moment of breakthrough, the same as Gina with her Wanjina series, and as Goomblar with his didgeridoo performance at ModroGorje, Ben’s sculpture too is – as the Those-Who-Know would call it – a Thump on the Soul.
Artist’s Statement
When Vesna told me about the stone in front of ModroGorje Centre in Katoomba, the sculptor in me instantly responded, wanted to see it. I took a trip to the Mountains, and when I saw it and touched it, my first impression was of mystery and power. Its magic beauty was larger than life.
Vesna used the image of uncarved stone, painted by Gina Sinozich, for the cover of her book Dreamtime Set in Stone, illustrated with other dramatic Wanjina artworks by Gina. That book locked me in, and I started dreaming of the stone.
Ten years ago, I painted a simple Wanjina image and have been keeping it on the classroom wall at the school where I teach, watching it every day ever since. That image became a part of my life. So when I saw Gina’s bold approach to that same imagery, combined with the amazing power of the stone, I sensed Vesna’s intention and there was no room for any dilemma in my mind as to what the theme for the stone was meant to be.
On 21/12/2009 Vesna asked me to sculpt the stone. I agreed. We discussed the design, and she gave me the greatest compliment any artist can hope for – telling me to do whatever I want, to formulate the design as I feel best. I am aware that Vesna is working under instructions of the Those-Who-Know, and that she is in a manner of speaking commissioned by Them and that I am, in turn, commissioned by her. I also know that the task of formulating the design and carving of this magic stone requires ultimate courage from all of us who are involved. Perhaps that’s why the side of the stone representing Courage is my favourite one.
I realised the stone is all about Power – the power of beauty, the power of knowledge, the power of our inner self, our own soul, and the power of the Oversoul that rules everything.
And I realised that the Whispering stone, as the most powerful stone I’ve seen, would take nothing but the most powerful of images.
Once we defined the direction and the main theme, and formulated the design for each of the stone’s four sides, I let the shape and size of the stone dictate the flow. I often feel that my job was made quite easy – all I needed to do was to stay attuned to the message given to me, and then to keep following the guiding current, ever-present in the Whispering Stone.
I also realise this is meant to be an interactive artpiece, an interface between the worlds, and is meant to be touched and felt. It might provoke anger in some, reawaken curiosity in others, or provide answers to true seekers.
Ben Osváth
Ben Osváth: Aura series – Let’s Turn the Tide
This subtle artwork that Ben created at the end of 2010, marks a new, gentle phase in his DreamRaiser opus.
Ben’s latest works remind the viewer of the importance of courage. The artwork combines Ben’s distinct style with the mirror theme which runs throughout our project.
No one likes having a mirror held up to their face. No one likes to look into themselves. No one likes having Wanjinas looking into their soul. But now we no longer have a choice, when the Unmovable decides to move again, and when the Wanjinas get a mouth and speak again, it’s time to change.
Tell No One – Ben Osváth
Ben Osvath’s new works remind the viewer of the best and most important human qualities. These new paintings are Ben’s response to the events between January and August 2010, revolving around the creation of Wanjina Watchers in the Whispering Stone sculpture, its subsequent desecration and what all that meant to the artist.
Anguish is a thread that connects Ben’s old and new works. Anguish over forgotten values, and humanity’s diminishing capacity for compassion and loyalty, honour and courage.
In Ben’s work, despair is projected so subtly that it seems to bypass our eye and mind, and to connect directly with the soul of the viewer, striking a chord with the best part of our being.
In Ben’s work, we never find any grotesque exaggeration of pain and hopelessness. It conveys well-managed pain, transformed into positive action through masterful self-control. Although stemming from the sadness for the values lost, there is an overriding and intense passion urging us to rediscover and reintegrate them into our daily lives.
The Living Dead – this latest artwork is Ben’s hard-hitting commentary on the current events. It shows what happens when we turn back on the universe and refuse to see the beauty of the truth. The artist warns us it can happen to anyone. Every person who stays deaf to the Wanjinas call falls prey to their own little demon and turns into the living dead.
The Living Dead
The Living Dead detail
The Living Dead detail
Guiding Light
Enlightened courage reminds us of the duality of everything. Courage in itself has a neutral quality, and depending on its source can become a positive or negative force.
If generated by anger and hate, leading to destruction and violence, it is not courage, but mere savagery and vandalism.
If generated by a discerning mind and a pure heart, it leads to works of great beauty and immense power, that become a thump on the soul.
05-03-2010: Under cover of darkness – the attack begins is about the most heartbreaking day in the history of the project, when the Wanjina sculpture was vandalised.
And yet, the Wanjinas message to us was: Tell No One. Tell no one of their shame. Tell no one of the axe-wielders, law-breakers, and shame-makers. Tell no one how far Aboriginal people have drifted away from us.
U.M.I.I.M.U. is another reminder of how far we have all drifted away from our ancestral spiritual teachers. The Wanjinas say: People have drifted so far they can no longer see us, or hear us, or feel us. By having drifted so far, it is no longer possible to just gently drift back, radical change is required, and enormous effort if people are to find their way back to the source – with white artists leading the way.
But the fool on the hill sees… Beauty and spirituality are all around us, for all to see, if we were just able to open our eyes and our minds and learn how to look.
Day after day,
Alone on a hill,
The man with the foolish grin
is keeping perfectly still.
But nobody wants to know him,
they think that he’s just a fool,
And he never gives an answer.
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning ’round.
(The Beatles: The Fool on the Hill)
Emergence is a highly symbolic work with a multilayered message. It reminds us of the interconnectedness of everything, the dynamic interaction of the levels of existence, from the pure idea to its materialisation. It speaks of Ben’s hope for people to make the right choice and say yes to positive change. Embracing that change, we can become co-creators in the SkyGod’s plan.
The Tell No One initiative is a celebration of Wanjinas and a tribute to Their laws.
05-03-2010: Under cover of darkness – the attack begins
Enlightened courage
But the fool on the hill sees…
U.M.I.I.M.U.
Enlightenment
Emergence
Pathways
Magnetic Attraction
Wanjina Too
