Works by Andrew Drummond in Dunedin Public Art Gallery express a deep connection to the land, Ane Tonga writes.
The intriguing pair of sculptures Devices for Support and Storage, by Andrew Drummond, have recently been installed at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Andrew Drummond was born in Nelson in 1951 and is based in Christchurch. His diverse practice spans three decades and includes installation, performance and sculpture. His installation work is some of the earliest examples of installation art in New Zealand.
Alongside this, he also developed a range of endurance performances, exploring themes related to symbolic materials for the land and the human body, and the connection between machines and movement.
From the 1980s, these themes also manifest into dynamic, large-scale works such as Devices for Support and Storage.
This work was made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and originally shown in the exhibition Kei Konei Inaianei: Here and now: Fifteen New Zealand Sculptors (1990), at Rotorua Museum.
Both dream-like and frightening, the work is based on collecting, evaluating and making objects that evoke agrarian industry, trees and rivers.
The assemblage of natural materials such as the stoic tree trunk that supports a golden arch and slate ‘‘spikes'' inserted into the freestanding arch may be considered as instruments evaluating and processing land in relation to the history of the treaty settlement.
This work is anchored in Drummond's deep concern for the New Zealand landscape and highlights the relationship between human beings and the physical world they inhabit.
Devices for Support and Storage is part of Vessels and Containers (subtitled The Bodily Arguments), an extensive suite of sculpture and drawings made between 1987-91 that includes The Holder of Rods, also part of the gallery's many holdings of works by Drummond.
• Ane Tonga is a Dunedin Public Art Gallery curator.
