Chester Nicholls

Chester Nicholls, Pulse and Pod, 2024, epoxy resin, glass fibre reinforcing, hung with nylon wires from tree.

Chester Nicholls’ paired works in Sculpture in the Gardens wrapped around two trees. One was expressed as waveforms with interference lines, representative of a cyclical heartbeat – the intertwined skeletal threads ripple out from the trunk like growth rings unleashed from within. The skeletal forms of the other suggested a pod or husks, holding, nurturing precious seeds, gems of potential. Death and life, cyclic and perpetual.

Chester Nicholls lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He began wood-turning and carving as a teenager, and continues to work with wood, metal, greenstone and, more recently, fibreglass. There is an aesthetic in the natural world that Chester tries to reflect in his work – patterns and forms that we relate to, because we too are from the natural world. A source of inspiration is the beauty of mathematics and the philosophy and phenomena of astrophysics. Reflecting on this in his art and design inspires awe and gives a sense of possibility and hope.

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