nick adams sculpture

 

Bio - the short version

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First i was a kid on an outback sheep station. And an Artist. Then I became a Stationhand, Machinery Operator, Drover, Undergraduate, Ecologist, Green Corps Supervisor, Traveller, Father, Fencer,  Hoof Trimmer, and once again an Artist.

Now a Sculptor I mainly  build animals from wire. Initially focusing on horses, I have developed a style of life-sized construction, caracterized by hand-built repititious and accurate work. I avoid the use of electricity, prefering simple tools and techniques  to acheive my visions. My goal is to transform hard cold linear metals into a belief of life, the inorganic into organic.

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Biography - the long version

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Nick Adams B.App.Sci.(NRM)

1970 -

 

I would best describe myself as a Copyist. With each sculpture I strive to replicate the proportions of the subject as accurately as possible within the constraints of the medium I choose. I am not interested in imitation, rather reproducing a form in another context. Thus I sculpt to materialise my visions that would not otherwise exist. This also serves to satisfy my need to fiddle, to fix, to create, to use my hands.

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I was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1970 and due to my father being a station manager, I spent the next 25 years working and living on huge remote outback sheep stations. It was during this time I developed my practical construction skills and learnt how to make something from nothing. There too I knew men who experienced lives impossible to replicate, droving until they developed scurvy, or having Sandy Blight of the eyes for two years. In my mind I find a thread from the fencing materials found in all my sculptures today, to the hardships common for the outback.

 

Then in my mid 20’s‚ I attended The University of Adelaide and obtained an Applied Science Degree in Biodiversity . I also obtained a love for the artificial, the visual stimulation, human created sights and sounds, and publicly available Art.

 

Seventeen years ago I moved to Cygnet Tasmania, and raised children, became a fencer and farrier, and finally a full time Artist.

 

I prefer to hand make objects, without the use of power tools. The low consumption of power is parallel to biodiversity. However I endure the noisy, smelly and dangerous phase of welding armatures to see the magic of joining metal, and for its strength and practicality. Wire is used throughout my sculptures, including in my cardboard and shellack miniatures. This is a medium I know so well and find myself returning to time again initially as the finished surface of a sculpture, and also as a base to affix the string medium.

 

I love the idea of public art, the act of giving the passer-by an interesting experience, one not immediately forgotten, and one that is free and available to all, those who are interested or not. As a result I strive to build sculptures that satisfy my own expectations for public art. After making “My Little Barb Wire Pony” privately, I displayed it for so long in various Cygnet locations that it turned Cygnet into a one horse town. Coincidently this sculpture is now on permanent public display at the Launceston General Hospital Tasmania, having been purchased by the LGH Heritage Committee.

 

I learn much from the late Noel Doepel, a Cygnet sculptor who became after many visits to his studio, a friend and mentor. I loved beating him in one exhibition, but sadly now I win his namesake prize. The progression of a piece is what interested me the most and what drew me to his workshop regularly. Big Blue was purposely constructed in public view at the Apple Factory in Cygnet, so as to allow people an opportunity to engage and interact with the creation of an artwork designed for public space. Big Blue is now in New South Wales, having been displayed for six months in the Dubbo Library, and then to Scone to feature in the Scone & Upper Hunter Horse Festival 2016. The Upper Hunter Shire Council has since purchased Big Blue.

 

I post my progress of my current constructions on "Nick Adams Sculpture” Facebook and Instagram sites.