Graham Bennett
Locate, 2009,
Stainless steel, 6000mm X 2000mm X 2000mm
Graham Bennett’s Locate explores and layers the concept of projection through measure, control and weight. The assured, balanced fragility of the piece, as it stands poised on the land, brings to mind the natural forms that surround it; clumps of tall reeds or nikau palms echoed in the overlapping steel poles, the curved centre mimicking the hulls of waka (canoes), or seed pods. We see the vision of an artist who bases his practice in the patterns of his wild home, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Bennett’s ongoing interest in the negotiation of space results in his consistent use of horizontal, vertical and diagonal frames; these act as our core agents of perception when moving around the interchanging artwork. Locate is not a reflection of Bennett’s particular personal story or ‘lived reality’ but rather a mediation of the artist’s experience in his Pacific environment; the shaping of identity through associations with place. As Bennett himself states: “I think it takes a lifetime to see. Seeing is standing upright and looking back and forward at the impact of our endeavours in relation to one another, the land and what notions of identify we hold”.
Locate explores Bennett’s interest in journeying across oceans, geography, measuring and mapping. Such discoveries are also the concern of the explorer, and for Bennett we are all explorers of land, and identity. Locate elevates the land with its rising form; a response to its environment, casting dramatic shadows to create another trajectory. As Bennett says: ”My work is a convoluted journey of tangents and overlays.”
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Artist Bio
Born in Nelson, New Zealand in 1957, Graham Bennett graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts, where he trained in photography in 1971. He now lives and works in Christchurch as a full-time artist.
His growing interest in three-dimensional forms, particularly the human figure, lead him to focus on sculpture, working in stainless steel, bronze, wood and stone, although a wide-ranging practice including teaching, has seen him also working with printmaking, rug design,and mixed-media drawings.
His work shows a fascination with mapping and navigation and the relationship between people and place: "My work is a convoluted journey of tangents and overlays, providing opportunities to trigger questions for myself and others about who, where and when we are or perhaps to challenge what balance means in our life, actions and relationships with the earth and with others."
Throughout his career Bennett has had more than fifty exhibitions including ten in group shows in Japan and he has received numerous prestigious awards and grants, residencies and private and public commissions, both within New Zealand and internationally. His work is held in public and private collections in New Zealand, Australia, England, France, Spain, USA and Japan.
In 2012 Bennett was one of five international artists chosen to participate in the Seoul International Sculpture Festa. His commissioned work, Tipping Point, was installed permanently in the Crown Haitai's Art Valley Sculpture Park and was also chosen as the predominant image for the symposium’s marketing design.
In 2020, an exhibition titled Seeking a Balance opened at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, showcasing a mix of sculptures, drawings and large-scale projections of some of Bennett’s larger environmental sculptures, and celebrating his remarkable 50-year career.