1999 Long Horizon (1999)

In the late 1990s and early 2000 Dibble produced a series of formalist studies of the human form reduced to simple mathematical shapes. These works are often referred to as the ‘Geometrics’. Long Horizon is the pinnacle of the series, its simplicity and elegance defining it as one of Dibble’s most exquisite works.

Long Horizon has a strong emphasis on line. The horizontal shaping of the legs and shoulders act in wonderful synchrony with the landscape behind the artwork. The sculpture is perhaps best displayed when placed against the perfect line of the sea’s horizon. This interest in the horizontal line can possibly be related to the area where Dibble grew up, the flat basin of the Hauraki plains, an area with atypical New Zealand geography.

What is magical about the sculpture is how in simplicity it reveals far more gesture than could be found in realism. It is instantly understood to be a woman reclining. We recognize a leg, although it is reduced to a cone; a head, which is actually a sphere ball and breasts, which are just the negative spaces of two simple holes in the torso. She leans in silent repose, legs stretched as if to catch the warmth of sunlight.