Virginia King
Phantom Fleet Vessel, 2017
Marine grade stainless steel
4300mm length
In its graceful hover over the lake’s surface, Virginia King’s Phantom Fleet Vessel suggests both seed pod and life boat with the delicate skeletal form alluding to botanical, nautical and anatomical shapes. For the physical form of the sculpture, King was inspired by the houhere leaf and the structural veins that remain after the outer leaf-layer has eroded. But the sculpture also carries a deeper message. As King notes: "While the vessel suggests boat hulls and empty seed pods associated with water and land, the work also makes reference to migration, endurance and loss. The sculpture alludes to immigrants’ deprivation and abandonment, and refers to rising sea levels and the urgency of addressing global warming."
The vessel represents life's journey, consisting of various migratory shifts and changes. The sculpture becomes a symbol of nurturing and protection, evoking ancient mythologies, and echoes of departure and survival.
By magnifying the scale and and abstracting the complexity of natural forms, King draws attention not only to their beauty and fragility but also the vulnerability of the Earth's eco-systems. In the more universal human context, the forms speak of genetic pools and micro organisms - the essence of life. Her sculptures are informed by mythology, history, science and literature, and express concerns about ecology and survival and the delicate balance between sustainability and progress.
An artist whose name is synonymous with large-scale sculpture in the landscape, many of Virginia King's works are commissions for private patrons around the world and rarely seen by the general public. In the public arena, the most well known are Reed Vessel in the Melbourne Docklands, and in Auckland, the Rewarewa Creek Footbridge, The David Lange Memorial and Aramarama Millenium Footbridge in Mission Bay. Also Feather, Fern and Matiatia Frond at the Telstra Clear Event Centre in Manukau City and her work at the Waitakere Aquatic Centre (West Wave) or in the Koru lounge, Auckland International Airport.
King was the 2010 Bondi Sculpture By The Sea Distinguished Invited Artist. In early 2006 she exhibited three large scale works in the New Zealand garden at Chelsea. King was awarded an Antarctic Fellowship in 1999 and has received four People Choice Awards at Headlands, Waiheke Island.
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Artist Bio
Born in Kawakawa, Northland, Virginia King spent her childhood growing up in Northland before completing secondary school in Wellington. She studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland and the Chelsea Art School, London, developing an interest in sculpture from the early 1980s.
Over the past thirty years King, has been commissioned to create an extensive portfolio of large-scale, site-specific works for public locations and private collectors. Major Australian commissions include Willinga Plume, 2013, at Canberra Airport and Reed Vessel, 2004, in Melbourne’s Docklands, while international commissions include Pacific Star and Colony at the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, New Caledonia, Limpet at the Hawaii State Art Museum, Honolulu and Leaf, Frond and Coral at the University of Singapore.
In 1999 King was awarded an Antarctic Artist Fellowship - a pivotal experience within her practice. Following her residency in Antarctica, scientists sent electron microscope images of diatoms (algae at the beginning of the food chain), to inform her celebrated Antarctic Heart series - an installation of video and sculpture shown in black light. The exhibition toured public galleries in New Zealand and Australia between 2001 and 2008, including the opening of Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna O Waiwhetu. King’s work continues to reference marine micro-organisms, corals and foraminifera.
Her vessel forms explore exploration and migration, nurturing and protection, life and survival. These works raise the urgency of conservation issues; the fragility of our environment and the global need for stewardship and protection of the natural world.
Since then, King has built an impressive resume of projects throughout the country and the world. She designed two significant public footbridges in Auckland; Rewarewa Creek, 1997, and Aramarama Millennium, at Mission Bay, 2000. In 2008, King was commissioned to create the David Lange Memorial in Otahuhu, Auckland and in 2013, a six metre sculpture, Hinaki Guardian, was commissioned for Hobsonville Wharf. Woman of Words, a unique figurative sculpture celebrating the life of Katherine Mansfield was installed in Lambton Quay, Wellington in 2013 and Heart of Oak was suspended in the Ohinetahi Gardens in Christchurch the following year.
King has been a regular exhibitor at ‘Sculpture on the Gulf’ on Waiheke Island as well as participating in ‘Sculpture by the Sea’ in Bondi and Perth.
In 2019 King was honoured to be invited by the European Cultural Centre to exhibit at Palazzo Bembo during Venice Biennale. This invitation was a powerful affirmation and celebration of her extensive body of work and position as one of New Zealand’s leading sculptors. By exhibiting in the collateral exhibition Personal Structures Pacific Light, her environmental concerns were brought to the world stage.
June 2020
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Aetherium Ancestral ValeAetherium Ancestral ValeVirginia King
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