As can be seen from the photos, Corbett likes to give his work the impression of speed – cars cornering hard, scarves flying in the wind.

Brisbane-based artist James Corbett makes sculpture with a difference.  His raw material is old car parts.  In fact, this is all he uses, which is hardly surprising given his background.

“Up until a few months ago I had a wrecking business – French wrecking in Brisbane,”  James Corbett explains.  Corbett has since sold this business and is now concentrating full-time on his unique car parts sculptures,  His work includes motor sport trophies and what he calls ‘personal indulgences’ – a recent example of this is a replica of a PRB Clubman racer for its owner. 

Some of Corbett’s finished works are very large, more than a metre long.  Even bigger, once finished, should be his version of a Peterbilt semi.  He is using a reat vision mirror from a Renault 750 as the truck’s windscreen – this should give some idea of the scale.

“Parts from the ‘40s and ‘50s are the best,” he says.  “ That was when they used to use a lot of chrome and stainless steel.” 

Finding the right bits is one thing.  Sticking them together is another.  Corbett says he is a self taught welder who has previously built off-road racers, so the construction of non stress-bearing sculpture is not a real problem.

As can be seen from the photo’s Corbett likes to give his work the impression of speed-cars cornering hard, motorcycles leaning into a turn, scarves flying in the wind.  This is not still life.

He is finding a lot of his commissions are coming from the automotive industry.  He is currently searching wreckers’ yards for enough parts to construct a huge metal crocodile, one of several works for the interior of a new Toyota dealership in Brisbane specializing in 4WD’s.

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