June 14 - July 8, 2023 Huia Sings Alone

Paul Dibble is a leading figure of his generation, having created a rich body of sculptural works for public and private contexts over the course of decades. The artist is particularly well-known for his large-scale, cast bronze sculptures, though he is also well-versed in working on a domestic scale. Key themes in Dibble’s work include native flora and fauna, cultural history, architecture, and the human figure.

Huia Sings Alone presents a new series of Dibble’s work. These sculptures reveal fresh responses to subject matter that the artist knows well – native birds and the flowers of the kōwhai tree. In all but one of the works, the birds featured are huia, the famously regal and stunningly beautiful bird driven to extinction by early European settlers (the one exception features a kererū). In Huia Sings Alone, Dibble presents a garden where kōwhai trees bloom and huia flock, settling to eat nectar in a secluded wonderland. This is a land of abundance, a banquet, a world restored. The works are sculpted in bronze, with 24 carat gold sheet to produce the opulent golden flowers.

Paradise is often imagined in the past tense – not as something that surrounds us now, but as something lost. The idea of it can conjure yearning for a time of plenty in an unspoilt world – living lives of simplicity in harmony with nature. Early Aotearoa was paradise for both huia and kōwhai. In the absence of predators, the huia could run riot. Even the kōwhai had free rein, its tiny leaves outsmarting the moa who found it too laboursome to eat.

For this exhibition, Dibble reimagines the lost paradise of Aotearoa. His huia are mostly joyous, inhabiting a garden of golden kōwhai, unaware that they are on borrowed time. Though there is a suggestion of what is to come. In the show’s namesake artwork, Huia Sings Alone, a single bird is perched on a sparse branch, on a small round base suggestive of a small island. It stands solitary, abandoned.

Huia and kōwhai were both revered and feature in sacred myth. The kōwhai, with its miraculous sudden flowering on leafless branches, seems symbolic of divine power. Kōwhai trees near lakes and rivers create a riot of colour with the reflection doubling the golden glow. Huia feathers, stored carefully in waka huia (carved treasure boxes) were worn as a sign of rank and mana. But such reverence can come at cost. The huia was hunted to extinction as those fascinated by its beauty and status sought to secure keepsakes.

Consequently, the works featured in Huia Sings Alone are both joyful and sombre. They reflect on the singular beauty and mythological significance of the huia, though also comment on the circumstances of its extinction. This tone, both celebratory and reflective, is captured in Dibble’s majestic bronzes.