Gondwana
2001. bronze. 1300 x 350 x 350 mm

Tanya Ashken – Sculpture
Idiom Studio March 30 – May 31, 2003

Click here to see other sculpture s in this exhibtion.

Best known for her large water sculpture ‘Albatross’, beside the lagoon in Frank Kitts Park, Wellington sculptor Tanya Ashken also has her work on permanent display at Victoria University, Circa Theatre and the Wellington College of Education.

Her large concrete sculpture outside Pahiatua is a memorial to the Polish child refugees who lived there during World War Two. Smaller works in silver are held in churches around New Zealand and the UK.

From March 30 – May 31 works by Tanya Ashken in wood, bronze and aluminium were shown at Idiom Studio. Some of these sculptures, she says, took up to 30 years to make, while others are less than a year old. They began as carvings in marble or wood which have been cast in metal by foundries in Auckland and Wellington.

Ashken trained as a sculptor and silversmith in London and Paris and came to New Zealand with her husband, John Drawbridge, in the early 60s. They have lived in Island Bay ever since.

"Some of the sculptures in this exhibition reflect my anger at what humanity does to other creatures, such as the black-backed gulls I see from my window facing Island Bay. A few works are completely abstract and these are the most difficult of all to produce."

For more information, photographs of artworks or to interview the artist, contact Cameron Drawbridge,
www.southcoastgallery.co.nz