New Work at Starkwhite

At a glance, Glen Hayward's found objects seem simply put together.

A stack of cardboard boxes, polystyrene packaging, fruit, a soccer ball and a recycling bin have all been mistaken for discarded everyday things hardly worth noticing. A closer look would reveal Hayward's sly deception; that these seemingly ordinary items are painstakingly crafted from wood and painted.

To replicate such unremarkable objects as lockers and light switches with such detail as to almost pass for the real thing, Hayward must scrutinise every tiny feature, from its hinges to the stickers on the door. The sense of purpose generated by handcrafting the most banal factory-produced details can result in a heightened awareness of our surroundings.

"It's like when you record a sound or you make a sketch and you replay it or you're thinking about that particular manifestation of the world, you have a different understanding," he says.

"By remaking a locker, you know how many rivets are in there, you know the particular direction of the curve of the lock because you are trying to do it. When you're actually making it, you get quite a clear understanding of the object."

Hayward says he has no problem selecting inconspicuous items for closer examination: "That is something to do with the way objects ask to be made. I think I'm the same as everyone else; I walk past the recycling bin hundreds and thousands of times and all of a sudden I notice something looks very similar to a sculpture or it has a form that interests me and that kind of project demands that it be made."

Hayward, who completed a doctorate in Fine Arts this year, has just moved to remote Wekaweka in Northland to help maintain focus away from the distractions and clutter of the city.

"There is too much to miss. If I'm honing down to spend a couple of months working on a piece, it almost becomes impossible to stay focused because there's a million other works to be made that I'm surrounded by. It is too overwhelming so it's a chance to move away from stimulus."

Hayward says that living in less urban surroundings will not result in him becoming a landscape artist but it will help him to separate the environment outside his studio from his activities inside. Even so, this new rural setting is apparent in the polystyrene-like letters "E I E I O" that are spelt out in the piece titled The Da Vinci Ode.

"I've made a lot of polystyrene before but it's ended up being about different issues. With that, it's uncovering the code in the text, or that thing The Da Vinci Code does, which is re-ignite interest in banal objects and says, there's actually something hidden there, there's a code, there's a level of information below what you are seeing."

Exhibition

*What: New work by Glen Hayward
*Where and when: Starkwhite, 510 K Rd, to Jun 25