Neil Dawson
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1948
Seascape - Installation
- 1979
- Mixed media
- Purchased, 1979
- 79/379
Tags: circles (plane figures), cones (geometric figures), disks (object genres)
Neil Dawson spent many hours at the top of Clifton Hill above the coastal village of Ōhikaparuparu Sumner, observing the reflections and shadows cast by sailboats and their mooring lines over the estuary’s still waters. Seascape is a sculptural drawing in space, and transforms that familiar panorama into something unexpectedly captivating. The suspended mesh cones – each with a tiny boat at its centre – echo the pools of light that changed colour and intensity across the day. Dawson, who had spent several years making toys for his young son, knew how simple but recognisable forms can let our imaginations take flight.
(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)
Exhibition History
Related
Notes
The Sculpture Collection
The first encounter most Robert McDougall Art Gallery visitors have with the Sculpture Collection is passing Ex Tenebris Lux (1937), Ernest George Gillick's bronze figure of a reading woman, on their way to the Gallery's front entrance. This work's title and subject, symbolising enlightenment and literally translated as "from darkness, light", is an appropriate maxim for an art museum, but Gillick's sculpture has another, historical, significance. Originally sited within the Sculpture Court (now called the Centre Court) of the Gallery, Ex Tenebris Lux was donated in 1938 by local biscuit manufacturer Robert E. McDougall, who had gifted the funds to build Christchurch's public Art Gallery almost ten years before.