This bronze sculpture ‘Nombril du Monde’ is available at ARTIS Gallery in ‘Parallel Reflections’ an exhibition of new works by painter John Blackburn and sculptor Marian Fountain.

Melding influences from European art in all its rich diversity, with her New Zealand roots and the cultures of the Pacific, Fountain uses the female form, plant life and the animal kingdom, often in states of metamorphosis, to explore themes of fertility, womanhood, conflict, change and growth.

The metamorphic quality in Fountain’s sculptural practice is a thread that runs through much of her oeuvre. Her Chrysalids, female figures with legs and arms fused in pod-like shape, are paused at the moment of transformation. In the Pandora’s Box series of medals the thighs, stomach and breasts undulate like hills, forming a human landscape. By not portraying the head, the perspective in these works is of looking down at one’s own body, creating a sensual experience that is both intimate and intense.

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