Dibble Studio: Tributes and Pathways (2025)

EXHIBITION DATES | 20 Sept - 13 Oct 2025

ARTIST TALK | Fran Dibble 5 pm, Saturday 20 September

Conceived by Paul and Fran Dibble in 2012, Dibble Studio works were first released in 2013 with a small suite of applied artworks. This is the foundation of Dibble Studio that now, nearly two years after Paul Dibble's death, is having its inaugural exhibition. It should be noted that Dibble Studio is staffed by the same technicians and all foundry activity is still overseen by Fran Dibble. Dibble Studio remains as before: and Paul remains in spirit.

Referencing Dialogue of Two Huia is a major and outstanding work by any criteria. Based on a model (released in 2022) combining two iconic symbols of New Zealand - a pair of huia and a kōwhai flower with its pendulous, suggestive skirt-like petal form spreading from its sepal cap. Collectively it becomes a metaphoric poetic of absence, tenderness and beauty. Using exaggerated scale as an emphatic device, an acutely New Zealand vernacular emerges imbued with powerful symbolism.

In direct contrast, the narratives of A Move into the City and Healing a Busy World acknowledge the return of native birds into the built environments of our cities. In both works we see Dibble’s trademark use of flattened (false) volume, the parable of building outlines and modern architecture appearing as if a stairway, interspersed by rectangular windows filled with light and hope. In the latter work, we see for the first time a new rich green patina and the emblematic, symbolic, sticks of healing kawakawa likewise reclaiming the city. Plural metaphors abound; narrative messages and images of optimism emerge.

Aotearoa Column (featuring a Kererū) and Falcon on a Native Plinth sprouting ferns, extend the conversations about native birds back into the trees and our forest environments. The haunting Tribute: Tree Study speaks directly to Paul Dibble’s acclaimed career and symbolism while uniting again a pair of huia with kōwhai branches.

The exhibition is further animated by groupings of models. Variously, these exist as direct tributes to Paul Dibble’s career and extended iconography while explicitly referencing the natural world. We witness the new presence of kingfishers with their distinctive hunched silhouette contrasted sharply by the architecture of an upturned dinghy. Godwits and owls return. Kawakawa – used in traditional rongoā māori for centuries – with its heart-shaped holed leaves, knobbly joints and branching stems is revealed to be Hiding in Plain Sight.

Across all these works a broad conversation about time and the human spirit develops and that the spirit world coexists with the natural world. The birds become metaphoric symbols of who we once were and who we could be now. What do we value? How should we behave? What do we see?

This narrative continuum begun by Paul Dibble is openly continued in this significant Dibble Studio exhibition and the journey continues as new pathways emerge.