louise purvis

Dog Head Hill, 2010
Black granite, stainless steel
1200 x 930 x 930mm

Renowned artist Louise Purvis is an Auckland-based sculptor, working across a number of mediums including marble, stone, metal, clay, and bone. She is known for the elegant forms of her sculptures, often site specific, inspired by significant landmarks. Her recent work has been based around environmental occurrences and the notations of marking and mapping. Inherent to Purvis’ work is the notion of process - the process of dedication, of creation, and of acknowledging the natural processes that result in environmental change.

Dog Head Hill explores the containing and honouring of nature. Soft undulating landscape forms frame and divide the natural environment it rests within. The work is reminiscent of a cracked boulder, marked by rippled, mountainous forms, further enhanced by the details of the carefully etched markings. Dog Head Hill visualises a flow on its surface that appears smooth and infinite - the ease and simplicity of the forms belie the skilled craft in their making. This is enhanced by Purvis’ choice of material; the sculpture is crafted from exquisite Shanxi black granite, fine-grained with an intense black colour.

Artfully playing with positive and negative space, Dog Head Hill sits as a sort of discerning meditation of worship - from certain angles, the viewer is afforded a perfect multi-dimensional cross within the bounds of the sculpture. We are given the ability to view not only a sense of the total object, but the fracturing of that same object, perceiving the space within it. Each segment, an eighth of the whole, embodies its own specific character. But in regards to worship, rather than a specific god or spirit, one has the feeling that any such feeling is directed towards nature; an ode to the perfection and imperfection of natural shapes and forms of our surrounding landscapes.

Purvis, the ambitious artist she is - with the technical expertise and dedication to match - produces incredibly complex works that push the capabilities of her material. The substantiality of Dog Head Hill becomes its defining feature; the physicality of the work’s presence as important as its materiality. Her large-scale sculptures pit the weight and spectre of the chosen materials against the energy she brings to the work; the creative process and physical labour of the artist becoming part of the work itself.