Mulga Woman

Shona Nunan

1993

Mulga wood

63 x 17 x 14 cm

In the collection of the artist

Tough, the Mulga Woman.

I carved her in ancient mulga wood from the desert, the chisel rang as if hitting iron.

She is the desert woman, strong and resilient, wise and patient, she was not formed in a day.

Chrysalis

Shona Nunan

2014

bronze 1of 8
201 x 32 x 32 cm

Chrysalis comes from a period when we had many young acrobats from Cirque du Soleil in our life, bouncing around us at our arts festival in Bagni di Lucca. Acrobats have a limited working life due to the huge stresses on their body. This is the moment when one of them is no longer able to work as the athlete she was. It is the moment when she must transform, reinvent herself. She feels bound and restricted while she seeks answers to her next road. Chrysalis is a metaphor for life when we must transform ourselves to become even greater, even more beautiful, more courageous than we were before.

Flower

Shona Nunan

2014

bronze

edition of 8

92 x 10 x 9 cm

Pure innocent youth emerging like a bud into life, ready to unfurl into a flower.

Puberty

Shona Nunan

1993

Red gum wood

also in bronze

edition of 8

126 x 12.5 x 14cm

‘Puberty’ was made from a red gum fence post. I love red gum, particularly old red gum. It is sometimes like iron to carve and is a brilliant red when polished. Squeezing her tiny body into the parameters of the post somehow made the post seem bigger, it’s like she had a presence hidden in that post all along and when she emerged there she was, pure and sweet and self protective, a feeling as big as the tree she came from. I was reluctant to sell this sculpture to someone who wanted it to go outside because I foresaw it rotting away in the weather, so I cast it in an edition of bronze. It retains the elements of the wood but stands freely outdoors with little maintenance.