There goes a Narwhal: Michael Zavros, Nell, Lionel Bawden
A white bird flies in the mist, a black bird then in the night, a woman walks wild and free, she is not afraid to die 2008 (detail)
Bronze mother-of-pearl resin and hand blown clear glass
Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
11 April – 25 May 2008
Michael Zavros, Nell and Lionel Bawden developed the idea for There goes a Narwhalduring a visit to the ‘Lady and the Unicorn’ tapestries at the Musée National du Moyen-Age in Paris, where they discovered a two-and-a-half-metre-long narwhal tooth – a trophy claimed from the unicorn of the sea.
For this exhibition, Michael Zavros has produced a suite of small paintings and drawing on the narwhal and other mythical animal/human hybrids; and Nell has created sculptural works that deal with birth, sex and death: a large shaman woman in bronze is followed by thirty-three small, hand-blown glass ghosts, each representing a year in the artist’s life. Lionel Bawden retains a sense of wonder, responding to the narwhal tooth by carving a mass of coloured pencils, colour glinting in the faceted and spiralling surface.