Tohawah Anne Harris

Anne Harris
Tohawah, 1997
Painted steel, 11.5 metres high

In a very literal way, Anne Harris' sculpture represents a "fusion" of untamed strength and precise elegance. Splitting her time between the studio and the metal foundry, Harris complements the skill of her sculptor's vision with industrial tools like blowtorches, forklifts, electric buffers and sand blasters. Out of these fiery forces, she creates works of delicate balance and grace. Tohawah, named with a Native language word for swans, again displays this trademark duality.

The polished metallic surfaces and the magnificent height of this sculpture suggest that we are looking at a marvel of modern engineering, while the Native title and the purely elemental shape of the intertwining lines speak of a return to the natural subject and shape. In this representation, trends are reversed: nature is served by technology, allowing the sculptor to release an elemental idea into a form of massive size and scope.