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John EDGAR
Transformer 2004 Part of the project initiated by Outdoor Sculpture 2001 Incorporated for the Auckland Domain and funded by the Edmiston Trust with support of the New Zealand Lottery Grant Board Millennium Fund and the Auckland City Council. "Since the dawn of civilisation, standing stones have been used to make statements in the landscape, from simple grave markers to the complex configurations of prehistoric stone circles. John Edgar's upright stele belongs to this lineage, resonant with ideas of commemoration, like the nearby Robert Burns statue and the Auckland War Memorial Museum itself. The artist sets up formal links too, selecting the same grey Coromandel granite that was used for the bases of those monuments, paying homage to them and signalling his intention to participate in the historical dialogue of the Domain as a sacred place, memorialising both a Maori and a pakeha past. The stele also pays respect to the natural site: its verticality has affinities with the tall trees that surround it, and its flaring profile suggests growth rather than a more mechanical geometric shape. Similarly, the rounded horizontal oval of the second form suggests a huge natural pebble. Was it once also a monument, now toppled and worn by the forces of wind and water? The title Transformer acknowledges the shaping and re-shaping of stone by natural and human forces. The work reveals Edgar's hand in distinctive bands of red granite set into both monumental forms in slender balanced groupings. His intriguing process of slicing and laminating stone to create effects of digital bar-code messages invests Transformer with enigmatic meaning, reminiscent of inscriptions on ancient Celtic stones." Special thanks to Trethewey Granite and Marble Ltd and Maunsell Limited for their support of this sculpture.Text written by Elizabeth Rankin, Professor of Art History, Auckland University, is from a publication sponsored by the P.A. Edmiston Trust, Auckland City Council and Hobson Community Board. Photograph taken by Gill Hanly courtesy of Urbis magazine.A slide show of the making of the sculpture can be viewed at http://www.johnedgar.co.nz/work.htmlJOHN EDGAR graduated in 1972 with a BSc, first class honours in science and worked for five years as a research chemist in Christchurch. Since 1977 he has been practicing as an artist and exhibiting nationally and internationally. Since 1988 he has lived at Karekare on the west coast of Auckland with his partner, glass artist Ann Robinson. He has been involved in two major public art projects in Waitakere City. In 2001 he designed the McLeod's Footbridge in Henderson, which spans the Oratia Stream between the Aquatic Centre and Falls Park. In 2004, together with painter John Hadwen, he designed the artificial climbing wall in the Waitakere Trust Stadium, Central Park Drive, Henderson. In 2004 he completed Transformer, for the Auckland Domain. Edgar has been a trustee of the Corban Estate Art Centre, Henderson, for over eight years and contributed to the successful development of the old winery buildings into community galleries and artists' studios. Since 1998 he has been president of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society. His work is represented in private and public collections |