Ben Pearce

Certainty, 2016
Corten steel
3100 x 1000 x 2300mm
Price on request

Certainty is a sculpture of weight, form and poise, balance and contradiction. Sculptor Ben Pearce has constructed a work that stands silent and tall within its environment, an intricate stacking of pieces of industrial corten steel - as if they were boulders found at the base of a cliff. How Pearce seems to coalesce an abrasive steel structure with the surrounding rhythms of native forest is the feat of a perceptive and skilful artist.

The rich, rusted patina of the steel works in tandem with the assemblage of rock-like formations to create a work that seems to mimic geological formations we see in our everyday surroundings. One can look at Certainty as a work that demands to be experienced over time; a balanced, solid entity that is certain in its presence. The material will endure - it may rust on the surface, but the structure will remain sound - part of the work’s angular, composed beauty.

The essence of each of Pearce’s sculptures is revealed in the medium used, be it the found objects - manifestations of memory made physical through reimagined childhood toys - reclaimed wood, bronze, or corten steel. Certainty holds an intriguing place in Pearce’s oeuvre as it explores scale and space in a novel manner for the artist; his largest work to date. Wherein his To Remember a Tree, Pearce’s 2016 exhibition at the Whakatāne exhibition centre, depicted life-sized bronze walnuts on an intimate scale - almost as if one could pick the work up and cradle it in the hand - Certainty explores geometries of mass, weightlessness, and physicality