Coral Garden Cultured Pearls
Warren Viscoe, Artist
This is one of the
sculptures
in our collection.
It was made in
Auckland, Auckland Region, New Zealand
in 1994.
See full details
Object Detail
About the Work
"
In
the
last
decade
Viscoes
love
of
transformation,
inversion
and
relocation
has
been
embodied
in
multi-part
installations
that
are
laden,
lateral,
and
densely
argued.
The
compression
of
narrative
in
the
suggests
poetry
more
readily
than
sculpture,
and
none
achieve
greater
compression
than
'Down
among
the
Deadmen'
and
'Coral
Gardens/
Cultured
Pearls'.
Like
'The
Pink
and
White
Bathers',
both
these
installations
reclaim
and
resurrect
a
ubmerged
history
-
namely,
the
violence
of
World
War
II
and
the
recent
nuclear
test
-
but
one
need
not
know
this
to
yield
the
strangeness
of
Viscoes
transformations.
Together,
the
form
Viscoe's
most
beautiful
and
mysterious
evocation
of
the
Pacific
seascape.
Nothing is only itslef in these installations. We face a forst of gouged wood forms which seem to have been bleached into Saline purity. Salt appears again in "Coral Gardens/Cultured Pearls" in large blocks and long metal troughs. Viscoe describes salt as 'an ocean with and without, our Garden of Eden'. We are made from it and we return to it, and this installation witnesses and celebrates the basic alchemny of that process. Salt shakers are clustered on the floor. Enamel cups hang from a coral gateway. Tall fish-shaped mirrors hold your reflection as you stabd in the gallery, merging the metaphors of sea and fish and body on one silver surface. And we see, amidst all of these changes, that the artist's role is a ritual one, tranforming the landscape into a kind of alterpiece." Justin Paton in 'Warren Viscoe Life and Limb' pub 2000 by Sarjeant Gallery . pg 44
Nothing is only itslef in these installations. We face a forst of gouged wood forms which seem to have been bleached into Saline purity. Salt appears again in "Coral Gardens/Cultured Pearls" in large blocks and long metal troughs. Viscoe describes salt as 'an ocean with and without, our Garden of Eden'. We are made from it and we return to it, and this installation witnesses and celebrates the basic alchemny of that process. Salt shakers are clustered on the floor. Enamel cups hang from a coral gateway. Tall fish-shaped mirrors hold your reflection as you stabd in the gallery, merging the metaphors of sea and fish and body on one silver surface. And we see, amidst all of these changes, that the artist's role is a ritual one, tranforming the landscape into a kind of alterpiece." Justin Paton in 'Warren Viscoe Life and Limb' pub 2000 by Sarjeant Gallery . pg 44
Measurements
Approximately 2000 x 3000 x 1000 mm installed
Media
carved and painted wood with found items, wall mounted mirror
Description
Mixed media sculptural installation mostly comprising of white painted wood with textured carved surface. Two posts toppped with painted wooden logs horizontally across the top, with two angled down to the floor on both sides. All three posts have mugs hanging from them at regular intervals. There is a rock at the base of each of the vertical posts. A log with a metal tray is lying on the floor in front of the vertical posts.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 1998
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
03 Dec 1998
Share
Artist:
Nationality:
Accession Number:
1998/38/2
