john edgar

Compass, 2015
Basalt
980 x 550 x 500 mm
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Bowls are one of the most important and ubiquitous human implements. Their origins are older than us, dating back to the beginning of time; from a lake surrounded by hills to the great bowl of food to a fire pit, they sustain and nurture us. Bowls are simple and evocative and are vessels used to hold water. They are a symbol of purity, life and divinity. The still pond - a natural bowl of water - was the first mirror and it was there that humans first experienced seeing themselves.

As a keen landscaper and gardener at his home in the kauri forest at Karekare beach in Auckland, Edgar is well aware of the physical and symbolic importance of water for the life and vitality of living things. Large bowls that hold water have many important references to the ritual acts of libation, cleansing, christening, and drinking - acts that refresh, revitalise and renew body and spirit as gardens do.  

The basalt for this sculpture came from the Lunn Avenue quarry in Mt. Wellington in Auckland. Before this quarry closed, Edgar acquired a number of these columnar basalt blocks, prised out intact from the quarry walls. While the outside of the block remains unchanged, the carved intervention of the bowl allows a window into the stone’s interior, accentuating the contrast between the natural and the man made surfaces.