Peter Blizzard (1940 – 2010) played a significant role in the development of contemporary Australian sculpture. Between 1972 and 1995 Peter was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Head of Sculpture at the University of Ballarat (now Federation University). His powerful work reflected a profound reverence for the Australian landscape and for nature in general. Australian Galleries is delighted to present Sculpture 1988 – 2009, a significant collection of work by Peter Blizzard.
Blizzard’s sculptures are a direct response to the landscape aesthetic, expressing the emotional quality of particular environments, and the essential spirit of nature. In most of his work he employs natural elements such as massive boulders found on location which were strategically and imaginatively suspends within transitional, elongated steel and bronze frames that provide a defining contrast.
‘My sculpture is an ongoing investigation into ideas and responses to nature, the environment, landscape, and about the relationship of nature to the human spirit and culture: ideas about the fragility of nature and the spirit of the land, and how we should respect and venerate what we have.
In making my work, I use symbols that I have invented, combined with those derived from existing recognisable symbols that exist in cultures throughout the world. I use all these images to emphasise ideas and emotions I feel about the fragility of the environment.
I often take a natural stone, or stones – of a particular colour or form – from the landscape. I then place it on, or in my symbolic totem, shrine, altar or tabernacle structure, in such a position to suggest to the viewer that a particular stone or rock has significance or relevance. In doing so, I am expressing my thoughts about the spirit of the land. The connections between time, place, the environment, nature and mankind. The sacredness of nature. The effect that man has on the environment. How man should venerate the earth and walk lightly upon it. The spirit of the earth in relation to culture and race. The inner spirituality of all people. These are ideas and issues I think about when I am making sculpture.’ – Peter Blizzard, 2006
Photographs courtesy of Peter Sparkman
