2002 View Over the Interior

View Over the Interior was first made in 2002 and followed several large male figures of similar size. The starting point from where they developed was a reference to the etchings of Goya whose studies on the Napoleonic wars featured huge figures sitting quietly on a hillside looking down on the fighting and atrocities taking place.

In spite of their size they are non-threatening, guardian-like onlookers with a solitary atmosphere that emphasizes their isolation in the emptiness of New Zealand.

The female figure in View Over the Interior looks to be a slender woman with a thick band of hair bunched behind her head.

The figures are modelled in semi-relief while they sit on the edge of a large cube. The aesthetics deals with a juxtaposition arrangement of the formal qualities of linear rhythms with the solid mass of the block.

Although there is a feeling of harmony in her shape the pose somehow still seems restless, as if at any moment she is going to spring forward. She looks out over the space in front of her as if her attention has been caught by some distant scene.

Made in Paul Dibble’s studio in Palmerston North an image of the sculpture is used on the cover of the re-print of a book about Dibble published by Bateman.