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Badges Artist Statement I got my first chemistry set when I was twelve. I watched, fascinated as copper wire dissolved in nitric acid and smelt the pungent brown fumes as a vigorous effervescence spread an intense blue colouration through the solution. Taste and smell were part of a chemist's tools of trade. I learnt to detect many chemicals this way. Colour was vital. The forms of crystals. The exotic small of the laboratory. My chemicals in their jars lined up on the shelves I built. Many of these jars are still in my lab. Making gunpowder. Exploding hydrogen balloons. The aromatic compounds. Using beetroot juice as an indicator of acidity. Oxalic acid from rhubarb. Distilling alcohol fractions. Laundry and garden chemicals in crude and lumpy forms. Grinding pastes in a mortar and pestle. Fuming acids. Tarry mixtures stuck on test-tubes. A dense yellow-green gas. Grinding cinnabar from Puhipuhi. Extracting mercury. Glistening spheres on a charcoal block. Refining the crust of the earth. The pure elements. The metals used in the Badges are copper, silver, nickel and brass (an alloy of copper and zinc). The shaped metal sections were soldered together with silver solder and then forged and ground to their final form. After attachments of the findings the badges were individually patinated with a variety of chemicals under different conditions. When all reactions had ceased, the surfaces were allowed to dry completely before being lacquered to seal them against further reaction. I expect some of the patinae will continue to change slightly, and I am interested in following such changes. The patinae are quite robust, but should not be exposed to water, heat or abrasion. Under normal conditions of wear they should last for many years, and should hopefully only get better. John Edgar
Notes taken from JSE Notebook, 1994. On return from North Cape Expedition 12.7.94 wild storm Lie of the land / Lying / Around the Cape / Slope Point 46 40 42 S - 169 00 00 E / North Cape 34 23 47 S - 173 01 00 E (1'latitude = 1 nautical mile) Flying the flag. Flag in tatters, rent, torn, tassel, worried, worn, ripped apart, torn asunder. Flag flying swiftly in the breeze. Badge of office How does the flag relate to the land? lie of the land These are not brooches - but BADGES. BADGES: distinctive mark (formerly of knight) now worn as sign of office or membership of society. Symbol that betrays a quality or condition. BROOCH: ornamental jewelled safety pin for fastening some part of female dress, esp. the neck. MAPS: etch maps onto surface of metal plates. Art is the examination of cultural iconography using visual language of symbols. 5-POINTED STAR is drawn as continuous line.Signs like this are quite the most ancient human documents we possess. Angle at the point (of 5-pointed star) is 36. test pieces / sketches / fun easy / fact / spontaneous / evocative / wearable / sturdy / rough My 'alchemy' has never been about the transmutation of gold, which is analogous with wealth, purity, and the belief in the passivity (non-reactivity) of gold as immutable. A standard. Gold is the end of the transformation. What was mutable has been transformed into its final (unchangeable) state. The above notes were all made while working on the Badges for the Fingers show "LIGHT RELIEF" 1994.
Catalogue Notes The ideas for these works originated during my travels, especially in 1993 when I made expeditions to Slope Point (the most southerly point of the South Island) and the Surville Cliffs (the most northerly point of the North Island). They first materialised as badges in "LIGHT RELIEF", my exhibition at Fingers in 1994. I knew that I wanted to find some form of expression for my ideas and thoughts associated with travel. Resourcing maps, photography, souvenirs, notes and sketches from my diaries, I wanted to find ways to express coming and going, nostalgia, longing, remembrance. I wanted the objects to be free like drawings; effortless, easy and pleasurable to make. For a while I wanted to leave behind the material considerations and technical difficulties so inherent in stone working; to find a freer expression in a mutable medium. I wanted the decisions in making them to be mostly aesthetic. I wanted the solution to be unique and individual. And I wanted to be surprised. All the works in this exhibition are new. I started out to make a series of traveller's badges, which soon became the larger bimetallic plates. They evoke the two-dimensional rendering of most of our recording and imaging systems. To me they are sculptures, not drawings or paintings, and I am keen to see their extension into three dimensions culminating in the synthesis of these metal plates and my stone sculptures. The metals used in these works are copper, silver, nickel and brass. The shaped metal sections were soldered together and then forged and ground to their final form. After attachment of the findings they were individually patinated with a variety of chemicals and conditions. When all reaction had ceased, the surfaces were allowed to dry completely before being lacquered to seal them against moisture and abrasion. I expect that some of the patinae will continue to change slightly, and I am interested in following such changes. The patinae are quite robust but should not be exposed to excessive water, heat or abrasion. Under normal conditions of wear they should only improve with age. John Edgar
Badge of Office Land's cape Metal constructs Slides of my work Headlands Flags of the nations |