The summer before I started design school I worked for my father at his one-man furniture/art/design factory. Ever since then throughout my time at University, I would spent most of my uni breaks in his workshop helping and learning.
This particular job came after the release of the New Zealand movie, The Dark Horse, which is based on the story of Genesis Potini who had strong ties to the Nuhaka area. Nuhaka Primary School wanted a trophy dedicated to Genesis Potini which was to be presented to the school chess champion each year. The trophy was to represent a large knight chesspiece and be carved out of a beam of totara which had historical ties to the school. |
Standing at 300mm high (excl. base) I wanted the design to reminisce of smaller, hand-carved style chess pieces - which you see Potini making himself in the movie The Dark Horse. Thus the angular, faceted form it takes on. The piece of wood they had provided was knotted and cracked since it was so old, so I used this to my advantage - taking care where these parts of the wood would fall into the design. The resulting sculpture takes on the look of a battle-scarred horse, with scratches down one side of its face and a damaged eye on the other, making it (I think) have more of a demanding, impressive presence.
Horse head carved by myself, whakairo by local carver and base by Chris Wilson. |