Model of 'Albatross'

item details

NameModel of 'Albatross'

ProductionTanya Ashken; artist; circa 1984; Wellington

Classificationsculpture, study models

Materialswood, plaster, paint

DimensionsOverall: 500mm (height), 1005mm (diameter)

Registration NumberCA001264

Credit lineGift of Tanya Ashken, 2023

Overview

Tanya Ashken was born in London in 1939. She began silversmithing at age 13, when she was a student at the progressive Bedales School. Ashken went on to London’s Central School of Art – where she met her husband, New Zealand artist John Drawbridge – before studying sculpture at Atelier de Del Debbio in Paris in 1960. In 1963 she moved to Wellington with Drawbridge and she has lived in New Zealand ever since.

Ashken has had a prolific career as a sculptor, silver-smith and jeweller. In 1967, shortly after arriving in New Zealand, she was the second artist to be awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship.

This scale model was made in around 1984. It is the model for Ashken's first public sculpture in Wellington – a cement work which sits by the lagoon on Wellington’s waterfront. The work was initially entered in a competition for a water sculpture to be built at Auckland’s Aotea Centre. Ashken was one of 6 finalists. When her work was not selected she approached City Council about a site for it in Wellington. The Council agreed to give her a piece land, and a fundraising committee led by Dr Ian Prior raised the money for the work to be made.

This model was used by Ashken as a demonstration piece, during the campaign to erect the sculpture in Wellington. The work consists of three abstracted forms, which are inspired by the southern sea bird. On the model these forms are made from plaster. The model is designed to hook up to a tap, so that Ashken could demonstrate the way that water flows through its structure.