Dying Light, created by Wesley Miles, was originally commissioned under the previous gallery director, with Miles forgetting all about his commitment until the current director contacted him to see how the project was going.

Miles mentioned he had been working on a concept informed by his recent interest in engines and clear cylinder heads.

READ MORE: Listen in: Triple-0 dispatcher saves life of Kings Meadows man

"I thought, 'that looks like that's really cool, I'd love to make my my own one of those', and I was like, 'how can we make that into an artwork?' So I thought to do heaps of them and then make it about skilling up, learning about things, and mental health," he said.

Miles soon realised that not all engines would work for the project, and found the Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engines due to the way the cylinder heads faced.

"I mainly just stuck to those kind of simple engines, and then the materials such as polycarbonate ... but then I didn't really take into account the fact that when you compress things it's a lot harder to melt the cylinder head, which made these kind of nice forms in themselves," he said.

"Then I was doing welds and other loose stands that kind of went with the work as well for them to sit on, which was kind of really nice to construct as well. The last part of the exhibition was like a bit of really slow documentation."

READ MORE: What workload? Busiest minister says he can manage

Miles said a lot of the exhibition was getting the engines working, and then how to display them, which came to him more so in the last few weeks of the project.

Miles said he hoped those looking at the exhibit would take away the message of just how cool engines were and connect the work to mental health, with a focus to keep on driving.

Engines are not Miles's normal medium, as he started out in art with print making, but then moved into sculptural work and learning how to weld.

"When it comes to my sculptural performative practice, it's often using some new material, or something else that I've been recently exposed to and then kind of running with that." he said.

READ MORE: At least 560 homes sit empty in Launceston, Hobart for three years

"I recently got into working on my car and working on my motorbikes and stuff, and that kind of was a direct influence to bringing that kind of knowledge into my artistic practice."

The artist found himself drawn to the arts during school, and it was such a natural fit that it became a career choice.

"Being an artist, the focus is on artistic thinking and learning how to think like that. It has definitely been a big draw for me for my whole life, for good or bad," Miles said.

Dying Light will be on show at Sawtooth ARI until March 19. It was originally scheduled to run in conjunction with Mona Foma, but was postponed.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: