Model for 'Interlock'

Margel Hinder’s is one of the most dynamic yet underrated sculptural practices to have developed in Australia during the mid 20th century. Born in Brooklyn, and initiating her sculpture studies in Boston, it was after migrating to Australia in 1934 that Hinder’s mature practice flourished.

The transformations of Hinder’s work throughout the three decades of her career can be seen to parallel the broader movements of 20th century modernist sculpture. Initially working from the 1930s in wood carving, producing works of Henry Moore-inspired forms of the British modernist tradition, Hinder had shifted by the early 1950s into a constructivist practice, focusing on the development of an abstract formal language, exploring the geometry of form and space.

The numerous commissions that Hinder received during her career for public sculptures was an important component of her practice. From 1973, she worked on a sculpture 'Interlock' for Deakin University, Geelong which was installed in 1979. The model concisely visualises her ideas for the larger sculpture: the interconnections of multiple forms; the articulation of space within the overall design of the object form and the suggestion of perpetual movement which was an enduring theme of her art.