Sculptor Profile

KODA: Nick Wilkey & Jonathan Morrish

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GATE XII, Steel, limestone rock, macrocarpa, recycled tent canvas, manila rope, corrugated iron

A gate.
A threshold.
A passage through time and space.

Throughout human culture and history,
the gateway has served as a symbol of a
threshold, a liminal space between worlds. A
sacred and powerful structure, the threshold
serves as a point of entry or beginning,
place of transition, place of exit, rite of
passage, or liminal space.

It gives rise to a space of transformation.

An acknowledgement of moving from the past
into the future, highlighting the potency of the
present moment.

The number twelve carries religious,
mythological and magical symbolism,
generally representing perfection,
entirety, or cosmic order in traditions
since antiquity.

In Māori belief, the Heavens that stand
above us are twelve in number.

Thus, twelve became a potent number with
which to create with and from. 11 frames
create the structure of GATEXII, the twelfth
gate is the sum of the parts.

The sculpture is defined by a timber
‘skeleton’ anchored to the ground by
two limestone rocks, it is dressed in a
recycled canvas ‘cloak’ and topped by a
rusted corrugated iron ‘feather’ roof.

 

KODA is a collaborative creative practice formed through the connection of emerging artists and architectural designers - Nick Wilkey and Jonathan Morrish. Interested in creating spatial artworks of scale and architectural form, KODA utilises locally sourced and recycled materials to create rich and layered narrative experiences that are about place, identity and the connection of the body to space. Influenced by the symbolic and mythic architecture of ancient cultures, KODA pulls on many threads to weave contemporary constructions that have an element of the sacred and the symbolic.