Wally Hicks

This series is a combination of subject matter, theme and meaning within one object, the iconic Kiwi Buzzy Bee, which when compared to a WW2 fighter or light bomber aircraft, is approximately 1:48 scale. Each ‘Mk II Bplane’ represents an individual aircraft from the RNZAF during WW2 in the Pacific/South East Asia theatres. The contrast and juxtaposition of domestic and military, child and adult-hood, nurture and destruction creates a dramatic tension, mirroring my own ambivalent and conflicted relationship with war in general, NZ history and its ‘iconography’ (so-called Kiwiana) and NZ military history (I am a card carrying pacifist who is fascinated by war). I also attempt to bring together ‘cultures’ like those of toys, warbirds, Kiwiana-collecting and model making, with that of the art object. 

Someone’s Nana – Corsair Bplane
NZ5424(24) ‘Nan’, 3 & 30 S.U. RNZAF, Jacquinot Bay
May 1945

$220.00

found object, model paint, decals, magnet

dimensions Varied