Join us at Objectspace for a film screening of Speaking in Stone, a short film commissioned after the untimely death of renowned and much admired sculptor John Edgar ONZM.

Speaking in Stone is directed by Greg Wood with music by Peter Hobbs and has a run time of 19 minutes and 38 seconds. Find out more below.

Guests are welcome to arrive from 4pm for drinks and refreshments. Speeches will begin at 5pm, followed by the screening at 5.15pm, with drinks and mingling to continue afterwards.

This screening will take place within Martino Gamper’s solo exhibition Endgrained.

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About the film:

John Edgar’s studio in West Auckland, once a large industrial ship-building warehouse, had become a vast repository of his copious and prolific creative life. In the aftermath of his death, all those close to him were confronted with the ’remains of the day’. Every corner and surface echoed that he was no longer here – that the unfinished work would remain – unfinished. Yet all of it demanded attention, recording and processing.

This was the impetus for Speaking In Stone. Both film-maker Greg Wood and composer Peter Hobbs were given free rein. Neither knew the artist, nor had ever met him. As such, this film is their response to what they encountered in and around the sculptor’s workshop and environs. With utmost sensitivity and subtlety, they have captured the essence of the artist at a time and place that he conjured in his material vision.

The visual encounters in these spaces are presented alongside a soundscape composed with music and instruments created from tools and sounds recorded at John Edgar's sculpture workshop.

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John Edgar 1950 – 2021 John Edgar was a sculptor and environmentalist who started out as a scientist – a background that truly defined his approach to creative work. Edgar was meticulous, rigorous, methodical, disciplined, curious and driven. He was influential, immensely talented and achieved a great deal in his lifetime, with at least four decades of making and exhibiting, sales and commissioned work in the private and public sectors.

Edgar was a full-time practicing artist (always an exacting schedule) yet made time to nurture and mentor others and lend his support and effort to causes for which he was passionately aligned. He belonged to communities in many disciplines, highly regarded by all, his contribution was immense and his loss is still unspeakable for those whose lives he touched.

Edgar was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to art, in particular to sculpture, in 2009.

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Public Programming for Martino Gamper: Endgrained is supported by the British Council New Zealand and the Pacific.