Pop-up artist: Steve Thompson

Steampunk sculpture is about science fiction in three dimensions. The science fiction is that which came from the Victorian era, H. G wells, Jules Verne and others. The aim is to create a futuristic object with components that would be available only in the Victorian era. As you can probably imagine I spend a lot of time in op shops and garage sales looking for bits and pieces that are an interesting shape and usually made of brass or copper or steel.

The shelves of my workshop are full of vases and goblets and things. Things that will become components of the next sculpture once they’ve been chosen, shaped, cut up, polished and sprayed; each project starts with one component that looks like something. Be it a helmet or perhaps chest piece. It might look like a piece of rocket ship.

In terms of design these things create themselves by virtue of their own shapes and whether my eyes fall on them while I’m searching… almost as much time goes into looking through the bits and pieces I have as is spent on finding them in the first place.

About three years working as an assistant with an inventor/engineer has led to my learning many ways to put things together. It was that training that led to understand that the structure of the finished product needs to look like it has always been together. Nuts and bolts and joining points are all hidden and yet each sculpture can be disassembled down to its basic components and put back together again like an engine.

You may ask what do these sculptures do? Their job is simple, to start with, they challenge and entertain me in their construction. The rest of their job is easy, it is to make people smile, laugh, point and to generally grab their attention. I’ve found that they all work so far. I hope you enjoy them as well.

You can visit the pop-up during gallery open hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, weekends, 10am to 2pm. The pop-up continues until 17 May 2026, alongside current exhibition, the Local Contemporary Art Prize

View the artist's website to learn more about Steve Thompson.

Location	Date and time
Caloundra Regional Gallery	27 March to 17 May 2026