Mounted on an Italian stone plinth and modelled on the Roman numeral 10, Model X is both a model for the 2018 Venice Biennale sculpture Zealandia and itself a perfect 10. The figure re-calculates the perfect proportions of Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man (c.1490), a Renaissance ideal which still informs contemporary architectural, aesthetic and industrial design. Based on the average dimensions of female figures from across the globe, Model X tests a new universal blue-print, proposing a collective DNA. Upright and petite, this abstract figure has high waist, strong limbs and clear-cut silhouette. Perceptions of mass and weight shift as the viewer circles the work.

Model X is also closely tied to primordial worlds. The metamorphic rock from Te Waipounamu / South Island NZ was uplifted to the surface an estimated 100 million years ago in the formation of the Te Riu-a-Māui, Zealandia, the World’s most recently discovered  8th continent. The planar form with deeply marbled grain documents ancient earth movements and clashing tectonic plates. Each sculpture in the edition of 10 is unique, tests sequential proportions, and is rich in detail with traces of minerals, mica and crystals that sparkle and refract light.