Bruce Mahalski, Untitled Bust, 2014, Bone, 50 x 53 x 25cm onto a black granite base. Photo by Michael Hall
PAULNACHE presents New Zealand artist Bruce Mahalski. He made his first bone gun for an anti-war exhibition called ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ and has specialised in textural bone sculptures since 2010. Mahalski's latest Untiled Life-size Bust portrait is made from paper and wood as the base, crushed bone on the face and thousands of small bones from rabbits, possums, ferrets, stoats, a cat and numerous small birds. covering the rest of the object. The spines on the head are from a large Snapper. The piece is partly inspired by a life-size model in Otago Museum (Dunedin) of a Gilbert Islander wearing a helmet made from the skin of a porcupine fish but it also references the films – ‘Hell-raiser’ and ‘Prometheus’. Its installed onto a black granite base.