Chester Nicholls

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.

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

The Burrill People’s
Choice Award
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Chester’s paired works in Sculpture in the Gardens wrap around two trees. One is 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 suggest a pod or husks, holding, nurturing precious seeds, gems of potential. Death and life, cyclic and perpetual.

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