Exhibitions Auckland

JOHN TARLTON

PETER NICHOLLS Recent Sculpture

The recent wood and steel sculptures of Peter Nicholls' second New Land series have taken a subtle, alternative direction to his earlier work. The rather academic association of directional wooden juts and planes, and the use of taut wire suspensions have given way in this new series to more solid feelings for mass.

The recent New Land series has a more relaxed and meditative quality. Oversized chains and couplings sweep heavily into gentle, sleepy curves which act to accentuate the geometric angles and negative spaces created through the joining of wooden beams and long sections. Nicholls has simplified and crystallized his visual ideas.

PETER NICHOLLS
New Land 8,
sculpture in wood and metal

In the smaller pieces, New Land 5 and New Land 8, Nicholls has incorporated tool parts such as an embedded axe handle and scythe blade. In New Land 8, a cross section of pohutukawa is encased within an oppressive necklace of mill chain - its repetitive circular chain links reinforce the primary circle form of log section, while the mechanically accurate links run in sympathy with the delicate nuances of the log's exposed life rings.

Nicholls has succeeded in producing feelings of extreme weight and mass in a surprisingly small scale. It is in these respects that Nicholls' new series is most impressive.