Kirk Nicholls with Karmatwa, for which he used a blunt chisel. Photo / Katie Shand
Kirk Nicholls with Karmatwa, for which he used a blunt chisel. Photo / Katie Shand
Kirk Nicholls' new exhibition is the culmination of years of collecting objects from anywhere and everywhere, and fine-tuning his own sculpting techniques.
The results are striking.
Curious Diorama opened at Orphic Gallery in Drews Ave last Thursday.
Nicholls said his first studio in town was in the space where Orphicnow resides, and the work on display began taking shape during that time.
"When I first moved to Whanganui 12 years ago, I started there, not knowing where I was going or what I was going to do," Nicholls said.
"These works evolved from there, but then I got into 3D plastic sculptures and left this behind a little bit.
"This exhibition was about tying up loose ends and coming full circle."
Nicholls said he trained himself to sculpt in a classical figurative manner in his late teens, before sharpening his skills working as a sculptor/model maker on television and movie projects.
The pieces that make up Curious Diorama feature objects he has found and kept over the years that would have otherwise ended up in landfill.
They are cast in plaster, sealed in polyurethane and painted.
"We used to have toys that lasted a long time and we'd treasure them," Nicholls said.
"Now there seems to be an overabundance of crap that is bought, forgotten about and dumped in landfill. Happy Meal toys are an obvious example."
The casts are set into wooden backdrops, some of which contain thousands of individually placed matchsticks.
The Collector by Kirk Nicholls. Photo / Katie Shand
"If you go in close, you'll see that all those toys, objects and sculptures I've made sort of blend together. There's an animation between them," Nicholls said.
"That's a trick I worked out by playing with moulds. It's a technique that's evolved."
One work - Karmatwa - contains winding sculptural sequences that jump out from wood that has been roughly carved with a blunt chisel.
"There were different approaches to that wood," Nicholls said.
"It goes from the chaotic origin of ripping trees out of a forest to regimented lines that are represented by the matchsticks."
It features two pictures of Nicholls himself.
"Towards the bottom, you can see a portrait of a baby, which is me on the day I was born.
"My father, who was also a sculptor, made it of me when I was only a few hours old.
"The other is of me when I was about seven years old, and that was something I sculpted myself. I just thought it'd be interesting to be a participant in my own work."
Another piece, The Collector, had been broken and reassembled, Nicholls said.
"I like the idea of doing a beautiful sculpture and then treating it in an irreverent way and throwing things at it.
"It's high art colliding with low cultural detritus."
Nicholls, who now has a studio in Bedford Ave, said he was glad to have finally finished the pieces.
"When the [Orphic] Gallery opened, I thought it would be nice to have a show there. It was a good excuse to finish off these works that were never really resolved.
"I'm really glad I did it, and it's great to be able to come back to where it all began."
Curious Diorama will be up at Orphic Gallery for the next three weeks.
