Jim Wheeler

Mangemange, 2020
Cast and fabricated bronze
2000mm high
Price on request

Walking where the trail bends and meets the edge of the Blackwood Dam, hanging from a mature Blackwood tree branch is Jim Wheeler’s Mangemange. This sculpture asks the viewer to be mindful, to slow down, to learn to be still and train your eyes. Mangemange does not demand attention, but rather invites perception and looking a little longer. The fine leaves swirl up the twisted vine in dynamic movement, the breeze picks up over the lake and the Mangemange dance begins.

This work is one with the surrounding environment, not competing with unnatural colours or forms but directly inspired by the ferns that grow up in the Kauri Grove. Nicknamed Bushman’s mattress because of its durability, the mangemange plant seems more like a vine than a fern and creates a curtain in the canopy. This delicate native fern was nearly lost at Brick Bay due to the dry drought in 2020, but it is promising and hopeful that it has restored itself and is growing strong again.

Wheeler’s work inspires us to linger, looking at the plants intrinsic to the forest, all playing a part in a fine balancing act. He is interested in our place in the ecosystem and the dichotomy of interconnectedness and interdependence of all living things. Wheeler emigrated to Aotearoa in 1981 where he has played a pivotal part in the re-establishment of bronze sculpture casting. Exhibiting since 1979, his early interests at University were art and biology and these two topics have forever been enmeshed for him in his art practice. With major public commissions such as Pohutukawa/Rata Descending in Queen Street, Auckland, Wheeler brings nature into the city and exemplifies his ongoing concerns for environmental issues. Wheeler has an international presence with works held in many private collections and public collections such as The British Museum, London, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, U.S.A and local collections of The Auckland Museum and The Wallace Arts Trust.