Kazuhisa Nakagawa & Salome Tanuvasa, SCARECROW, 2021-2022
Galvanised steel wire mesh, nylon/polyester fabrics. Life-size.
In this collaboration, Kazuhisa Nakagawa presents a sculptural interpretation of the human form using fine silver wire – an elegant filigree that suggests partly-faded bodies of which remains only these strangely-transformed circulatory systems and tracts. The preternatural figures were then clothed in abstract textile garments created by Salome Tanuvasa, whose designs were inspired by indigenous botanicals like harakeke, kōwhai and pōhutukawa.
Interplays between hard and soft materials, and positive and negative space, are at the heart of this work, serving as something of a coda for several other contrasts and dynamics that the work speaks to: between human and natural systems, between the inner workings of being and the external expression of self, between the human capacity for gentleness and hostility, embodied by the symbol of the scarecrow.
