A Primative Hand Exhibition 2006

Artistica Fine Art Gallery Christchurch 2006

Origin plays a consuming role in our lives, origin of self, origin of becoming, origin of belief.  And more often than not we endevour to renounce or bury them deep away from prying eyes.

This current body of work attempts to express the raw physicality of a once valued object that has been buried deep within the cloak of time, and now resurfaced.

Like an ancient artifact, its rawness reflects its origin

Carving concrete

The process is quite similar to the above statement. 

A hole is dug into the ground and cement is poured in, this is let cure overnight and pulled from the earth while still green the next morning.  

I now have a block of somewhat unstable concrete the consistency of a sandcastle.

The carving act itself is a treacherous one.  The material once raised is in a continual state of flux.  Within a seven hour period the material goes from sandcastle to concrete.  This means that my carving technique has to change hour to hour.

Once the initial carving is completed, the work will now dry for approx 28 days then sanded and filed.  The completion of the sculpture comes with a layered applicatiion of a shellac mixture, to seal and give an earthy tone.