{"id":19858,"date":"2025-02-10T15:50:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T04:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/?p=19858"},"modified":"2025-02-14T12:09:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T01:09:56","slug":"verdigris-visions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/country-living\/verdigris-visions\/","title":{"rendered":"Verdigris Visions: Sustainable Copper Sculptures by Rachel Burns and Ulan Murray on NSW’s South Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discover how artists Rachel Burns and Ulan Murray create intricate copper sculptures from recycled wiring, embracing sustainable art practices on the NSW South Coast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Verdigris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


It comes as little surprise that sculptors Rachel Burns and Ulan Murray made the copper-panelled kitchen and bathroom doors in the home they share on the NSW South Coast<\/a>. Of course they did. They pretty much rebuilt the entire dwelling in the century-old former farmhouse overlooking the Brogo River flats with their own hands. Then they created a studio in a shed on the 15-acre (six-hectare) property, added a natural swimming pool complete with dragonflies, lizards, frogs and the occasional snake. They also remodelled a former cubby into a guesthouse and turned the garage into a pavilion with a pizza oven, open fireplace and ancient Balinese\/Indian timber doors for hosting the friends and family they occasionally welcome to their hillside hideaway. But what Rachel and Ulan are most well known for are their recycled copper sculptures that they have collaborated on together for over 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Green<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crafting Recycled Copper Sculptures from Wiring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In art as in life Rachel and Ulan are a formidable team. It\u2019s been that way since they met in Wollongong in 1998 and married within the year. Ulan, who had trained in horticulture and studied biology was working on the landscaping for a building where Rachel was employed as the arts and cultural officer for the local Indigenous Community Development Program, helping the long-term unemployed turn their artistic skills into income-earning projects. For the past 15 years they\u2019ve collaborated on extraordinarily detailed recycled copper sculptures made from recycled high-voltage copper cable wire collected from scrap yards, which they strip back, unwind and straighten before turning it into works of mesmerising detail. There are some abstract pieces, but the mainstays of Rachel and Ulan\u2019s creative output are renditions of trees set on plasma-cut steel plinths with the trunk and canopy above balanced by a tangle of roots dangling below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dog<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


After a false start studying fine arts at the University of Sydney \u2013 the architecture students were being given priority in the life-drawing classes, so Rachel left \u2013 she moved to Wollongong to study creative arts (painting, print making and sculpture) and has pursued her passion for painting and sculpture ever since, with occasional segues into teaching art, arts management and running a tribal furnishings shop with a friend in Bega for about five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Verdigris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe\u2019re both very proud that we\u2019ve built our entire careers avoiding \u2018proper\u2019 [full-time] jobs,\u201d Ulan says. \u201cFrom the beginning, we\u2019ve worked together, raising our two kids and swapping roles from earning to caring for the children as opportunities presented themselves. We\u2019ve been able to survive as sculptors because we do everything ourselves. Because that\u2019s the way we operate, our renovations have had to wait for us to have the time, energy and occasional influxes of income to get done.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Verdigris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Life and Inspiration on the NSW South Coast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Keen to build a life as a couple, Rachel and Ulan bought 25 acres (10 hectares) at Mudgee in central western NSW, where they lived while Rachel painted and they built a house. Daughter Indigo was born there and Ulan started exploring an interest in carving stone<\/a> and working with wood. They moved to their present home in 2003, just in time to welcome son Taj earthside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interior<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe were incredibly lucky that the previous owners were not great at preparing the property for sale,\u201d Ulan says. \u201cIt meant we could afford the place and we\u2019ve been working on it pretty much ever since.\u201d When Australian Country visited, the couple were enjoying a brief respite after a successful exhibition of their work in Sydney. True to form, they arranged pretty much every detail themselves, from transporting the 24 pieces in their van to hiring the gallery space, setting up the exhibition and arranging the myriad other details associated with a show. They\u2019re quietly chuffed that one of the sponsors of Sydney\u2019s annual outdoor exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea, bought one of their works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Verdigris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe live remotely and we\u2019re hermits for much of the year,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cWe\u2019re happy with our Whippets, Romeo and Frida, and own company, but it\u2019s rewarding to see all the works displayed together and people\u2019s reactions to them. We\u2019re not represented by a gallery by choice, but it can be stressful. We even had to borrow some money from my mother to cover a cash-flow crisis in the lead-up to the exhibition which was the first we\u2019d had in four years due to COVID. She\u2019s always been our biggest supporter and when I mentioned I might have to take an outside job to mount the exhibition, she was quick to respond: \u2018No you won\u2019t, just get back to the studio and keep working\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Outdoor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Journey of Sustainable Sculpture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rachel says she and Ulan arrived at their tree motif organically when she was filling in for a lecturer and teaching students to draw trees. \u201cWhen I saw some cabling, I realised it could be used to make fine foliage and roots,\u201d she says. \u201cThe chaotic pattern of nature has always been one of my artistic drivers,\u201d Ulan adds. \u201cTrees have them in spades and river deltas from the air have always fascinated me.\u201d While the division of labour is decided collaboratively, Ulan says he\u2019s most often on the welder making the sketch for the copper sculptures or plasma-cutting the steel plinths. For high-energy Rachel, the monotonous rhythm of wrapping the foliage and roots is a meditative respite from her 19-to-the-dozen daily life \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s like knitting as it\u2019s repetitive and calming\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Verdigris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the Studio: A Glimpse into Their Creative Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recycling materials is very important to their sustainable ethic. They grow their own vegetables and keep a fruit salad of productive trees, chickens for eggs and occasionally meat, and rotate six sheep across the land to keep the grass down. Internally, the house is a splendid showcase of their own and other artists\u2019 works, with an assortment of rustic furniture and finishes including the copper sheet-covered doors and a giant hardwood beam in the living room that was dragged to the house with a neighbour\u2019s tractor. There\u2019s an entire wall devoted to paintings they\u2019ve bought or been gifted through the years and numerous rugs, vessels and decorative pieces from Indonesia, India, Morocco, Afghanistan and Iran collected on travels or from Rachel\u2019s time with the shop. \u201cA lot of generous people have supported us and bought our work through the years,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cMany of them have become friends. Now it\u2019s our time to support young emerging artists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Pandemics permitting, Ulan and Rachel usually hold an exhibition every second year and they\u2019ve exhibited and won awards in sculpture shows and festivals all up and down the east coast of Australia. \u201cI realise I\u2019m incredibly fortunate to have made a living by working full-time at art since I left art school,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cWe plan to do more abstracts, but people love the trees so much that they will always be part of our portfolio. It\u2019s nice to be able to evoke the responses people have to our work and no matter how long we\u2019ve been in the business, it\u2019s always a heart moment when someone buys a piece.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discover how artists Rachel Burns and Ulan Murray create intricate copper sculptures from recycled wiring, embracing sustainable art practices on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[336,261,104,20],"tags":[71,446,24,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19908,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19858\/revisions\/19908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australiancountry.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}