100cm x 25cm x 15 cm

Vintage timber intrays, cloth-bound book covers

Strata is an assemblage of reclaimed timber intrays and cloth-bound book covers collected from locations across the Northern Rivers of NSW. Seen in cross-section, layers of deep reds, yellows and earth tones suggest geological strata — a landscape compressed, ordered and held. The work draws a direct connection between material and place, using objects with their own histories to construct an abstracted impression of the landscape from which they were found.

Dean Stewart is an artist and designer based in Ballina in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.

Dean works with found objects and reclaimed materials, creating contemporary assemblages that explore form, place, memory and the histories held in everyday things.

His background in interior design, visual merchandising and signwriting continues to inform his practice. An attraction to architecture, graphic form, typography and spatial composition can be seen throughout his work, from the way individual elements are ordered and repeated to his use of colour, line, symbols and numerals.