Sculpture Gallery

FOR SALE
H 900 cm

Totara

$5000 Contact me

Comments
"In Nelson St Off-Ramp and Newton Road Interchange Off-Ramp the analogy between the road system and the arterial network of the blood is particularly compelling, the lanes of traffic having an unmistakably veinous character. "

Peter Simpson, Art New Zealand (No. 101)

Location
Artist's Private Collection - For Sale $5000

SOLD:

H 1950cm  Max. diameter 350 cm.

totara, and steel camshaft

 

SOLD: Totara and steel camshaft. H 1950 cm x 350 cm. Now showing at Kura Gallery Auckland.

FOR SALE

H 1000 cm  W 400 cm  D 160 cm

Kauri

SOLD
recycled Kauri

Comments
A cut-away section of a car motor morphed with cut-away section of human heart and lungs.

Location
private collection

SOLD

H 1500 mm

recycled Kauri

Comments
Homage to Harvard Mk2 nicknamed 'Bessie' for its ability to perform complicated bessel functions - solutions to certain differential equations.
Close inspection of this work will reveal a carved moth. This refers to a malfunction in the Harvard Mk2 which had been caused by a moth caught in a telephone relay panel - reputed to be the origin of the computer industry term "debugging".

Location
Auckland University, Computer Science Dept

SOLD
H 1600cm

Macrocarpa

Comments
Initially Christensen sought to bring out anthropomorphic personifications hiding in particular pieces of wood, but then he moved on to mechanistic metaphors. A fine example of this is 'Trouble' 1992. This is a 1.6 metre-high section of macrocarpa trunk, stripped of bark but otherwise unformed except for the top 50cm. At the top a natural fork has been carved into the gaping maw of a taniwha, seemingly rearing up from the depths to devour an unwary fisherman. At first glance this terrifying head has a very Polynesian look, but the teeth, eyes and scales soon resolve into cogwheels, nuts and bolts. One then notices that the base of the work is a real gearwheel. This creature does not snap - it minces and grinds. It becomes a symbol for the threat made to the superstitious, pre-European culture by a godless, exploitative, machine-driven one.
Warwick Brown - Another 100 New Zealand Artists, Godwit Publishing Ltd, 1996

Location
Private Collection

SOLD
H 994 cm

Kauri & Volkswagen cylinder head

Comments
The inspiration for the work comes from the mechanisms of early computers. The brass cogs and cams of the Victorian Difference Machine made by Charles Babbage and the telephone relays that made up 'Bessie', the first computer made at Harvard University, provide forms that are worked into sculptures that are as simple and strong as a post yet worked with extraordinary complexity. The accuracy and detail of the carving is astonishing."

T.J. McNamara, NZ Herald 3/11/94

Location
Auckland University, Computer Science Dept.

 

SOLD
H 2200 cm W 320 cm

Recycled Totara and gearbox tail extensions on machine base

Comments
"The combination of human and mechanical suggestions is emphasised by the use of a gearbox rear extension casting as part of the face. It makes a powerful idol that has something of the ambiguous effect of the famous Epstein Rock Drill in the City Gallery."

T.J. McNamara, NZ Herald 1/10/92

Location
Saachi & Saachi Auckland

SOLD
H 1000 cm  W 490 cm  D 80 mm

Totara

Location

private collection<>/em>

SOLD
 H 2550 cm perimeter 850 cm

Norfolk pine

Private Collection

SOLD (Commission)

Diameter 100 cm

Bronze

Comments
Depicts a cut-away section of a two-stroke engine morphed with a human head: the respiratory passages replaced the intake and exhaust ports. Suburban utility vehicles circle the outer edge of the medallion.

Location
Artists Collection

SOLD

H 1040 cm  W 450 cm

Totara

  "The single most impressive work is also the most intricate. 'Tower of Babel' is carved from an immense stump mounted on a steel drum. Its building structures are within a curve as if in the shade of an immense cliff. The work is not only a remarkable piece of carving but also an elaborate comment on the relationship between humans and nature in terms of shapes." T.J.McNamara Weekend Herald . October 30 1999.

SOLD

Rimu
Private collection.

SOLD
H 1500 cm  W 1500 cm

Pine, handmade brass logic-gates, steel ball-bearings

Comments
"Binary adder. Four ball-bearings,representing two 2-bit numbers are loaded at the top of the sculpture and cascade through logic-gates to produce a 3-bit sum."


Location
Collection of the Department of Computer Science ,University of Auckland.

SOLD

totara

Comments

Private Collection Auckland " The parallel lanes and sweeping curves of the traffic system viewed from above strikingly resemble some of the designs and effects of Maori carvings of the human body, an analogy of which Christensen is clearly aware."

Peter Simpson - Art New Zealand No.101

 

Location
Private Collection

SOLD
H 2000 cm

recycled Kauri

Comments
A tribute to Charles Babbage. In particular the complicated assemblage of hand-turned brass cogs and wheels of his decimal-based computer.

Location
Private collection London.

FOR SALE

H 1700 cm

Totara

$850 Contact me

Location
Artist's collection

SOLD
H 1800 cm

Pine inlaid with iron timing chain & pully wheels

Location
private collection

SOLD

Main Frame by New Zealand sculptor, Leigh Christensen.

YouTube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ_JZgj9o9w

 

H 1700 x diameter 400 mm. $7000

Totara with aluminium gearbox cover from HQ Holden, aluminium dynamo and steel and brass impellers.

 

Totara and alumnium

 

totara and aluminum

 

Totara 1700 cm

FOR SALE

(Each one unique)

$500 each

SOLD

Picture by Kura Gallery