richard Mathieson

Round / Medal Tree, 2016
Sand cast bronze, cast concrete, 316 stainless steel
3200 x 350 x 350 mm, Edition 1/3 Price on request

Richard Mathieson’s Round Tree is a medal tree; an abstract bronze tree of celebration. It pays homage to the repetition of nature as well as being a celebration of the artist’s company ‘Medal Art NZ’ celebrating 25 years of existence in 2014. Like triumphant arms, the converging circles of the medals splay brightly outwards in a celebratory manner from the central axis of sculpture. The composition of the elements is a double helix (DNA) with each of the castings rotating anticlockwise locking at approximately 18 degrees from the one below. The castings sleeve over a central stainless steel axle to form a sort of ‘tree-tower.’ There is a reference to botanical growth and the organic patterning which occurs in nature while the individual dish shape is a simplistic depiction of the obverse and reverse sides of a traditional medal. With the obverse being convex and the reverse being concave these facetted discs illustrate a method known in sand casting terminology as “cope and drag” - a definite front and back of a pattern board mould. It is the immediacy and surface texture of sand casting that Mathieson enjoys. The final patina is Liver of Sulphur followed by bees wax.