1988 Fury in the Garden

Media: painted plate steel, steel rods and cut out parrots.

Fury in the Garden was made for an exhibition that followed Dibble’s artist residency at The Dowse Museum in Lower Hutt. Seven large works made up Dibble’s solo show titled “From Fire and Water”. They thematically “explored the calm and fury of the human spirit” as the artist wrote. The sculptures were big, with poles with swinging cut out parrots exuberantly perched. This work was situated on the concrete paved area outside the entrance, greeting visitors to the gallery. It travelled to the next show, “Sculpture for Cities” at the Manawatu Art Gallery the following year, but was altered by the artist with added cut out flames bolted onto the body, and the parrots and poles removed.

Fury in the Garden was a pivotal work for Dibble, that sits on the cusp between two changes of stylistic approach. In the period before, the artist had made large installation pieces which occupied whole rooms (the parrot construction works). Later works were a grouping titled ‘The Foldings’. The larger of this series were made from sheet steel, cut and bent with pieces bolted together, almost like giant metal origami.