nick adams sculpture

Big Blue, 2014-2015

baler-twine over 'Feral Mesh', mild steel rod, RHS frame

front 2150mmH x 1550mmL x 800mmW

rear 2150mmH x 1400mmL x 800mmW

artwork can be brought together to 2950mm in length

​

 

Big Blue is a two-part larger than life horse, standing in a feeding position, covered in bright blue hay string. Completed in Autumn 2015, the sculpture was funded and constructed by the artist in Cygnet, Southern Tasmania.

 

I came to the horse as a subject for art from an agricultural base, outback stations, rather than from pleasure riding, or industries such as racing or military. Despite breaking my arm and loosing interest in horses when eight, while still young I deliberately sought out horse skills, as motorbikes had long since replaced horses on stations and these skills were fast being lost. I first went droving in far outback NSW, and then worked as a Stockman on a horse and cattle station in the east McDonnell Ranges in the NT. Now living in Tasmania, as well as being an artist I am still a horse hoof trimmer. Big Blue draws on this knowledge combined with my Applied Science degree and 25 years living on Sheep Stations in outback South Australia, and is the most recent of my focus on horses as subjects spanning 5 years and winning six sculptural awards.

 

The Concept for Big Blue came while building “My Little Barbed Wire Pony”. This sculpture was a full size draft horse made entirely by hand twisting fencing wire and covered with barbed wire. Whilst “My Little Barb Wire Pony” was about realism, Big Blue is my take on the big plastic animal sculpture movement, along with the Farmers string on the fence scene. Incidentally we didn’t have any hay in the outback.

 

The process of construction was initially drawing 1/10 scale diagrams, based on adding 33% to the horses I have measured, both life and skeletal. Then I welded a steel RHS armature to fit within, over which attached 6-8mm rod to define the body shape. Onto this was wired a fencing mesh to enable the baler twine (hay string) to be lashed on for the finish. Made in halves, I initially envisaged Big Blue displayed with a metre gap, through which you could walk, and when between the two hemispheres the momentary experience would be no longer a horse but a seemingly unrelated space. However there are various possibilities of display for this sculpture

​

After a stint in the Dubbo library (NSW), Big Blue was loaned to the Upper Hunter Shire Council for promotion of the Scone & Upper Hunter Horse Festival 2016. It also appeared at the 2017 Darley/Godolphin Stallion Parades.  In January 2018 Big Blue was purchased by the Upper Hunter Shire Council for permanent display.