Shaping The Narrative

Sculptor Carol Crawford’s creations are a labour of love — and storytelling, as ELLE MCCLURE discovers

I’m sitting in Carol Crawford’s whitewashed Sydney studio, where light gushes in through large, low windows, dappled by the trees that line the street outside. It shines fondly on the sculptures — both finished and nearly-there — she has displayed carefully around the room. As we walk through the space, she considers each piece, reverently talking about its meaning and the origins of the stone. “I do what the stone tells me,” she says humbly. “I’m very good at interpreting what it wants to do. I’m sort of a stone psychologist. That can be your headline!”

A shelf to one side is lined with stones in various stages of shaping, sanding blocks, and pots and bottles filled with unidentified mixtures. In the corner, a picture of Georgia O’Keeffe is tacked to the wall above prints of some of the late artist’s landscape paintings. Crawford later tells me she counts O’Keeffe among her inspirations (along with Barbara Hepworth, Isamu Noguchi and Michelangelo), for her “bold, feminine creations”. Much like O’Keeffe, Crawford’s personal style is notably singular: a rotation of mostly black Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Acne Studios and bassike, with trademark round spectacles and platform sneakers (“the chunkier, the better”).