Inspired by a trip to Singapore, Spain and the United States last year, Dave Hickson has brought together an exhibition of works that highlights our relationship to our urban environment. His photography, sculpture and drawings explore architecture and the interaction of objects in particular spaces, taking in the grandeur and occasional intimacy of public buildings and structures. The exhibition “New York, Barcelona, Murwillumbah” – recognises the quiet drama being played out in the shapes and colours of our everyday lives – opens at the Tweed River Art Gallery, Northern New South Wales (close to Gold Coast), Australia on 8 March and runs until 14 April. Read More

8 March – 14 April 2013

Most of the work for this show was inspired by a trip to Singapore, Spain and the United States. The work explores architecture and the interaction of objects in particular spaces, taking in the grandeur and occasional intimacy of public buildings and structures. I have attempted to make works that highlight our relationship to our environment, and the relationship of shapes and colours to each other.

I started this series of work by photographing towns in my region. In 2012, I signed up for the Endless Sunrise project, where a group of photographers documented the sunrise each day for a month. Rather than taking images of the sunrise at the beach, I began photographing the towns in my area, from Billinudgel to Crabbes Creek and Mullumbimby. I was inspired by the beauty in the buildings and trees of these areas, and when I had the opportunity to travel overseas with my partner, I wanted to continue developing this interest in architecture and urban landscape.

Travelling first to Singapore, I visited the newly built Marina Bay Sands Hotel, a 55-storey, three-tower building with a 150 meter swimming pool on its roof. The complex includes a shell-shaped theatre and the Art Science Museum, which is inspired by a lotus flower.

Then on to Spain to visit Madrid’s amazing art museums, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao , where Jeff Koons’ floral puppy guards the entrance to what locals call the “Dog House”. This is a building that has brought millions of visitors a year to a part of Bilbao that was, for a long time, an industrial area and port. Constructed of stone, steel and concrete and clad in titanium, it is a revolution in architecture using computer-aided design to bring Gehry’s organic, poetic forms to life.

Although I was amazed by the history and decorative quality of the buildings and monuments in Spain, it was in Barcelona that I had an architectural spiritual experience. Antoni Gaudi’s cathedral, The Sagrada Familia, has been under construction for 130 years. Gaudi died in 1926 and the construction is expected to be completed in 2026, the centenary of Gaudi’s death. The organic exterior, with sculptures growing out of the stone in every direction is remarkable, and inside the power of the massive columns leading to an undulating ceiling of different coloured stone and marble is incredible.

Reluctantly leaving Spain, we arrived in New York and quickly made a bee-line to Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiraling Guggenheim, and the Met with its buildings within buildings. From New York we drove to Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water house at Mill Run. Its cantilevered structure and natural location are a great example of architecture that interacts with its environment. The original rock formations jut into the interior of the house and the waterfall under the house acts as a natural air conditioner. We then travelled to Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles before flying home.

My photographs of these buildings and urban landscapes were the starting point for both drawings and sculptures. I have simplified forms and played with scale and colour to produce works that sometimes only vaguely show their connection to the original image.

The series of work displayed in New York, Barcelona, Murwillumbah is simply an attempt to interpret our urban environments, to recognise the quiet drama being played out in the shapes and colours of our everyday lives.

Artefacts:

“New York, Barcelona, Murwillumbah” is a exhibition of drawings, photographs and sculpture inspired by a trip Dave Hickson took to Spain, Singapore and the United States in 2012.

Prior to travelling I had been making a series of photographs of towns near my home, such as Billinudgel and Murwillumbah. Then while overseas I visited a number of buildings designed by renowned architects: Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona; Frank Gehry in Bilbao and Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennsylvania and New York. These buildings were often designed with nature as their inspiration. Frank Lloyd Wright had coined the phrase “organic architecture”, which was architecture that responded to its environment and blurred the lines between the inside and outside. This was possibly a response to the development of the large rectangular-box skyscraper apartment buildings that became popular in the 19th century.

At art school I majored in sculpture, and I find I have always had a strong affinity for architectural spaces, whether it is simply the relationship of objects in a particular space or the grandeur and drama of public buildings and structures.

I wanted to create work that looked at these relationships: us to our environment, shapes and colours to each other, and the abstraction of our everyday lives.

In this exhibition I’m showing a series of photographs that represent most of the places I have visited on this trip: Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao in Spain; New York, Washington, San Francisco and Pennsylvania in the US; and Singapore.

I translated some of these photos into drawings, simplifying the compositions, shapes and colours, then translating them further into sculptures; using wood off cuts or reshaping recycled wood using a jigsaw, then playing with the colour, scale and composition, letting accidental associations happen, until it seems to be right.  Sometimes looking nothing like the original image – but still containing the essence and memory of the starting point, whether it was standing in the Metropolitan Museum in New York or in the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

If the viewer feels inspired to check out one of these buildings or to look at their surroundings with a different perspective – I think that’s great.

“New York, Barcelona, Murwillumbah” runs from March 8 – April 14.

The opening will be 6pm (for 6.30pm) on Friday March 8 at the Tweed River Art Gallery. To be opened by Richard Weinstein SC.

Dave Hickson Biography:

Dave was born in Auckland, but grew up in Christchurch and Singapore. After leaving school he studied broadcasting and worked for a small music television station in Christchurch. He moved to Sydney in 1997, where he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with honours in Sculpture, at the National Art School.

He won the sculpture prize in 2002 at NAS, for a series of wood and welded steel constructions, inspired by painters such as Matisse, Bruegel and Poussin.

Since art school Dave has gained teaching qualifications; and has taught at schools and at TAFE. He continues to make artwork in a variety of media; including sculpture, photography, collage and drawing.

He has been shown in the Salon des Refuses at S.H.Irvin Gallery, Swell Sculpture Festival, and the Olive Cotton award for Photographic Portraiture.

Dave’s current show has drawn its inspiration from a trip to Singapore, Spain and the United States. It explores architecture – delighting in the interaction of objects in a particular space, or the grandeur and drama of public buildings and structures. He has made work that looks at the relationship of us to our environment and of shapes and colours to each other.

Dave has lived and worked in the Northern Rivers region since 2008.

Source: www.davehickson.net