Folding Sculptures
The form is an unfolding and a refolding. It is capturing the act of folding a shape into a structure; like an envelope or package. The shape is cut from aluminium sheet and folded to form facets that cast shadows as the sun moves around the work. Folding Sculptures painted Golden Yellow, and White, colours (particularly yellow) used in road markings and industrial applications to quickly draw the eye to boundaries and danger. Yellow also references the native Kowhai flower that indicates the beginning of spring and a source of food for our birds, as well as the eye-catching invasive Gorse and Broom flowers.
The work draws upon the concept of a uniquely Aotearoa-New Zealand language of shapes evidenced in Richard Killeen’s wall installations. Folding sculptures are also influenced by the architectural structures of Neil Dawson, sculptures that waver between image and form, sitting delicately in the landscape.
This work can be experienced as a spatial divider, and as a figurative object; like a leaf delicately resting on the ground. I encourage people to interact with the work, touch it, move around it, but also to view it from a distance. The monochrome colour and architectural form sits in contrast to the green foliage of an outdoor setting, a stark reminder of the introduced species that have been eradicated but also an echo of the Kowhai that has replaced them.