Phil Price

Forbidden Tree, 2016

carbon fibre and epoxy, industrial urethane, stainless steel and precision bearings
4,300 (extending to 5,300) x 3,700 (diameter) mm

Forbidden tree is like no tree in the natural world, it moves with the wind, creates shade, but drops no leaves. The forms are smooth and sensual, the colour is strident, unchanging with the seasons, a shrieking shock of pigment against nature. It needs no water, but is alive with movement.

Its tree shape is born of science and engineering, a mechanised form that steals from the wind to move its artificial branches against the sky.

Pluck the fruit from the forbidden tree in a future world where plants and animals have been replaced. The tree speaks of what awaits us in a distant but ever visible future.

– Phil Price

Phil Price

born 1965, Nelson

Lives and works in Lyttleton, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia

Phil Price has focused on wind activated kinetic sculpture since 2000. His sculptures are highly engineered, seamless works of deceptive simplicity that often defy logic. Large forms can move elegantly or violently in the wind, their organic shapes reflecting inspiration from and a reimagining of the natural world.

Price has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland. Price has created major international public and private projects including: New Nucleus, Hamilton Victoria (2014); Snake, Aarhus Denmark (2013), Tree of Life, Melbourne (2012), Journeys, Canberra Airport (2012) and Cytoplasm, Auckland viaduct basin (2004). Solo exhibitions include Waiheke (2011) and McClelland Gallery Victoria (2008-9). His work is held in numerous international collections, including in Austria, USA, Switzerland, Holland, UK and Australia as well as in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera.

philpricesculpture.com