Works lack strength

Press, 1 November 1977, Page 26

Works lack strength

Morgan Jones, sculpture, C.S.A. Gallery, until November 6. Reviewed by Michael Thomas.

Six sculptural pieces by Morgan Jones are shown in the downstairs gallery of the C.S.A. Morgan Jones was the joint winner of the Hansells Sculpture Award in 1975, and has exhibited widely in New Zealand, especially in the South Island. His work is very much concerned with the formal elements of sculpture. Pure form, space, and the characteristics of materials are considered in an organised and logical way.

Having worked in fibreglass and plywood with a painted surface, Morgan Jones is now using natural wood, rope, perspex, and bright yellow nylon cord to construct his sculpture. The radiata has a gentle effect on the eye and con-

trasts with the hard character of the perspex and the bright yellow of the nylon cord.

The only wall sculpture in the exhibition is Jour-

ney” a sort of square spiral made in wood with a perspex backing. Small ping-pong sized wooden balls are attached to the sides of the wooden spiral.

“Headlong” consists of six carefully made boxes each diminishing in size and, attached by two ropes making a kind of “trail” which climbs vertically up the wall. “In Rise” individual lengths of timber are hinged to a baseboard which are made to stand at ever increasing angles creating a structure similar to the spines of a dorsal fin. Aluminium strip is at times used for structural reasons, but often, as with the nylon rope, it seems to have no physical function and is a superfluous and aimless element in the sculpture.

Good use is made of the transparent quality of perspex. It serves either as an almost invisible structural element onto which the wood is fasstructural element on to tened, as in “Journey,” or

more obviously as reflective surface in contrast to the wood.

The show is consistent, and each piece is constructed with a high standard of craftsmanship. The works, however, are

not simple and distinctive enough to make a strong statement; they are well made objects but the viewer is left with the question, “What do they say?.”