NightWing Enterprises
of Melbourne, Australia


V



Feature Vessels

  •   Forest Morph Vessel
•   Forest Guardian Vessel
•   Pawn Cocktail
•   Arbour Vessel
•   Friesian Animorph Vessel

*

Forest Morph Vessel (Pic)
(click on the image to view an enlargement)


Forest Morph Vessel


270mm (H)  x  99.5mm (W)  x  97mm (D)

Hand-turned and detailed in Purpleheart
with contrasting incised motif in
Canadian Maple.

This original piece of fine art wood
sculpture draws together colours and
forms associated with the forest
environment, including seed pods,
native blooms, foliage and the
roots and shafts of trees.

The contrasts of line, form and colour
project human perceptions and
dilemmas into the quiet of the natural
realm, symbolising our connection to
the earth and its many planes of life.

^ v



Forest Guardian Vessel

327mm (H)  x  114mm (W)  x  114mm (D)

Hand-turned and sculpted from English Ash,
Canadian Maple and Striped Ebony.

This original artwork provides a visual
representation of the protective strength and
enduring life force of the forests of the earth.
It is intended also to symbolise the duality
and binding together of different elements
in nature (as within human nature) in the
contrasting character of the woods chosen.

The form of the ‘branches’ is adapted so as
to provide an echo of the human hand as it
encloses and safeguards, while the
emerging forms at the top of the vessel
provide a sense of energy and of outward
and upward movement, seeking to indicate
the insuperability of the life force.

The wood for the piece was chosen to
provide a link to the major continents
throughout the globe; North American and
European timbers combine in alternate
quadrants to form the stem while the cup
and base are fashioned from an African
native timber and the vessel was conceived
and created in Australia. This joining
together of elements from the four corners
of the earth seeks to show that wood (and
indeed, life, of which it is part) is not bound
or contained by political or geographic
boundaries.
Forest Guardian Vessel (Pic)
(click on the image to view an enlargement)

^ v

Pawn Cocktail Sculpture (Pic)
(click on the image to view an enlargement)

Pawn Cocktail
Sculpture


340mm (H)  x  253mm (W)  x  263mm (D)

Hand incised, turned and sculpted
from Queensland Walnut, European
Beech, Monash Holly and Nigerian
Danta.

The Pawn Cocktail sculpture draws
upon the well-known symbolism of the
game of chess to embody concern and
sympathy for the way in which the
lives of ordinary folk are over-
shadowed and swept up in the
events of war.

The Pawn Cocktail sculpture develops
the chess analogy (wherein the chess
board represents a battlefield and the
pawn represents an ordinary foot
soldier), extrapolating the chess
board into three dimensions. Here,
the terrain has risen up like the
sea to produce dangerous peaks,
and to explode upwards to produce
a vortex in the form of a cocktail
glass within which the hapless pawns
are trapped.

The standards of the opposing armies
(transmuted into 'swizzle sticks')
depict the moon and stars respectively,
signifying the remoteness of the
issues of war from the lives, loves,
everyday concerns and fates of so
many of the human players in the
drama of armed conflict.
Alternative Views    (click for pop-up enlargements)
Top View

Top View
Side View

Side View

^ v


Arbour Vessel

280mm (H)  x  105mm (W)  x  105mm (D)

Hand-turned and sculpted from Silver Ash,
and Silky Oak.

This original sculpted vessel takes from early
memories of quiet wooded places and tree-house
sanctuaries, to give a sense of the protective
resilience of the world of flora, and of the
importance of our relationship with it.

The strength and supple curves of the rising
columns enclose, support and entwine the open
enclosure of the cup, while their lines flow
on and up and are echoed within the profile
of the lip, suggestive of the ways in which
life energies may be shared, transmitted and
conserved.

The octagonal interleaving of alternate segments
of contrasting woods from trees which are found
together in the remote reaches of Australian
forests, adds a further reference to the joining
of diverse characteristics in an harmonious and
unified whole; one where seemingly opposite
traits provide tension, yet serve to strengthen
each other and each to throw the beauty of the
other into sharper relief.

Arbour Vessel (Pic)
(click on the image to view an enlargement)

^ v

Friesian Animorph Vessel (Pic)
(click on the image to view an enlargement)

Friesian Animorph Vessel


305mm (H)  x  107mm (W)  x  107mm (D)

This sculpted vessel is hand incised, turned
and carved from selected pieces of Silver Ash
and Ebony.

The Friesian Animorph vessel is one of a
series of works which draw together organic
forms from different quarters as an allusion
to the many planes of connection between
living things. As the chosen medium for these
works, wood has its own warmth and organic
vibrancy. In this piece, woods originating on
opposite sides of the earth have been brought
together to form a familiar patchwork motif
reminiscent of a well-known breed of animal.
The dark and light elements in this motif
throw the complementary and opposing
qualities already present in the wood into
sharper relief, linking it to comparable
dichotomies within the animal (and also human)
realm.

The three legs of the Friesian Animorph
vessel are poised as if walking and arranged
radially to draw the seeming energy of
movement inwards to the piece and contain it.
Meanwhile, the contours of the bovine belly
flow upwards to form an egg-like cup. The
resulting merging together of familiar,
though disparate, forms and materials has
been calculated to achieve a visually
engaging enigma rather than merely a
conundrum. The result may well be both.



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*  To see additional Vessels, please
visit the Online Catalogue  page.

^


NWE

NightWing Enterprises
ABN 22 207 533 285
www.nightwing.com.au
PO Box 20, Dallas, Victoria, Australia 3047
Ph +61 3 9016 3347  •   Fax +61 3 9309 8273  •   Mobile 0409 309 143
Email: contact@nightwing.com.au


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