Wood Steel Land & Water

Virginia King is a New Zealand sculptor who, for 30 years, has transformed private and public spaces both here and overseas, with her often large structures in steel and wood. Natural forms provide inspiration for her work; stewardship of the environment and a celebration of its flora and fauna are ongoing motifs.

Earlier this year she took up the invitation to show at Palazzo Bembo in Venice, alongside artists from more than 50 countries, in a Biennale Collateral exhibition titled Personal Structures. Don Abbott began his conversation with King, asking how this came about.

V.K.: I was installing a work for a client in Mandurah, south of Perth in Western Australia when I received an email inviting me to exhibit in Venice. I thought it was a scam, a joke, so I ignored it. There were several people gathered for the unveiling of the Mandurah Nautilus and one of them asked, have you ever shown at Venice? No, I replied, but strangely enough, I have just received this email out of the blue, inviting me.

They looked at the email on my phone, and made some calls, and we found out that it was real and that it was the sort of invitation you don’t say no to.

So I said yes! Funding was not available, and I realised I would have to pay my own way. Richard and Christine Didsbury from Brick Bay placed some advertisements, Sophie Coupland agreed to champion the fundraising and we ran two fundraising events, one on Waiheke Island and the other in the city. Cindy and Andrew Hendry of Coopers Creek sponsored the wine and we engaged caterers. A patron in Herne Bay offered their home as a venue and the Waiheke event was in my studio. Both events were successful.

D.A.: Did you manage to raise enough?

V.K.: I did, but it was a struggle. I sold some of my collection and I took on a daunting amount of commissions. It was quite a commitment. I still have one work to finish. It’s good to reach the end of the list and I’m grateful to all those who purchased existing or commissioned new works.

D.A.: And the show in Venice has come together successfully?

V.K.: Yes. I decided to treat it like a retrospective, as I did not have enough time to make all new works to take there. I freighted it there by air, which gave me another five weeks of work time, and it didn’t cost too much more than to get it there by sea.

D.A.: How many pieces are you showing there?

V.K.: There are five and a video. A , a branching vessel from , , a floating work, , a coral work and a large . My gallery space was on the second floor of the palazzo, so the access was so it became glowing and highly coloured, to draw people in. I also placed a seat in the room. People had warned that Venice is chaotic and busy, so here was a chance for a rest. I had a video made with Baraka, who is the creative director of Waiheke-based film production company ember::vision. We compressed 30 years of my practice into four minutes, and the video plays continuously in the gallery.