An exhibition which displays works produced by Australian artist, Wayne Z . Hudson opens to the public at the Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga on Friday 18 February 1994. The exhibition contains six works made while the furniture-maker turned sculptor was the 1993 Artist-in-residence at Carrington Polytechnic (UNITEC), Auckland. Hudson states that 'In these works I have made a deliberate attempt to re-use the function of furniture as my previous work which has been dominated by those parameters.' Hudson was born in Tasmania in 1948. After learning from his father the skills of shingle splitting and adzing, he worked as an upholsterer for 16 years. He attended the Tasmanian School of Art and graduated in 1989, when he was thirty-eight. He continued teaching at the School as a part-time tutor in sculpture and then as Lecturer in Design-in-Wood. 'I still use my bush skills with an axe, an adze and as a blacksmith, but finish my works to a very high quality. Also I'm very interested in linking lost craft techniques with contemporary methods and practice.' 'I have great passion for the material I work with and am always pushing further to create new dimensions and exciting objects. At present I am using traditional blacksmithing skills; working with iron, plasticising it and reshaping it, the weaving it through my work. 'I use a culmination of ancient metalsmithing techniques along with contemporary methods.' Steel has qualities which constantly conflict with me. The challenge is . . . working with the natural harshness of the material [which] is synonymous with the forces of life. 'I am concerned with form that represents cultural messages based on my interests in investigating pastoral and urban spaces incorporating a past and contemporary society with a ritual and spiritual area ... my work represents animal and human existence abounding in nature and [within] a struggling culture.' He has travelled extensively overseas and in 1991 attended the Penland School for Craft and the Haystack School for Craft and Art in America. Before taking his residency in Auckland, he was interned at the Paley Studios in Rochester, New York working for three months with Albert Paley -thought by many to be Americas leading metalsmith. He has exhibited work regularly in group and solo exhibitions throughout Australia and overseas and has received numerous awards for his work. Hudson has now returned to Australia to live in Adelaide. After its initial showing at the Fisher Gallery, the exhibition will tour throughout New Zealand during 1994. It will be shown next at the Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt.