Graham Bennett
Seek, 2006,
Stainless steel,
Graham Bennett’s sculptures deal directly with relationships between people, place and identity, with particular reference to the Pacific region. In Brick Bay’s Seek, the informing idea is that of Aotearoa/New Zealand as an island. The two forms of Seek suggest two islands, two segments of a globe. The overall proportion of each is that of 1/18th of the globe based on latitudinal and longitudinal divisions. All manner of association can be read into the physical shape of this work and the transient forms it creates through the sweep of its wind-generated movement. One can read references to charts and maps, navigational devices that speak of the ocean, Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, the place in our history and psyche, its impact on people as island dwellers. The crossing arcs of the outer contours hint at cycles, currents, patterns, all relating to the oceanic existence of this land.
Thematically, Bennett explores aspects of arrival by settlers. He references particularly the brigantine that his ancestors brought here in 1868. But the association is more universal than this. The work is inclusive. It references all manner of ocean-going vessels and voyaging canoes. Seek encompasses journeys by the earliest arrivals: voyages migrational, colonial, ancestral.
In Seek the use of reflective material, stainless steel, creates a constant change of colour associated with the surroundings and the sky. Ambiguities and illusions are created as the forms move through their drill. This encourages the viewer away from a static presentation and encourages movement around the work in order to explore it fully, to engage with it more completely.
Seek is one of three variations on a theme. The other two works in this series utilise the same two forms of Seek but are not wind responsive. One is a ground-based horizontal version and the other is a static vertical.
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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.