Jane and Mario Downes
Jane is a sculptor/designer from Christchurch and holds a Bachelor of Design from Christchurch Polytechnic. She exhibits at galleries and major sculpture events throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, undertakes commissions, and sells her smaller pieces online. Her work is mainly constructed from sheet metal, using shapes, forms and patterns that resonate with her – natural or humanmade, often commonplace or from childhood, sometimes delicate ephemeral objects from nature, and sometimes robust geometric forms from popular culture and industry. Jane seeks to challenge preconceptions of purpose and beauty, valuable and lowly, masculine and feminine, permanence and the ephemeral.
As a full-time engineer, Mario Downes collaborates with Jane Downes in the construction and installation of her large-scale sculptures. He has worked on a wide range of creative projects including with artists exhibiting at Sculpture on the Gulf and SCAPE, to the manufacture of steel garden art for his and Jane’s Ironweed Products line. In addition to frequent road trips for exhibitions and installations, Mario’s interests includes local community service, semi-self-sufficiency and alternative energy projects, earthmoving, and martial arts.
More about Jane: www.janedownes.co.nz
Jane and Mario Downes’ entry entitled Fittonia Colossus Suspended is a suspended installation of plasma cut mild steel leaves inspired by the vein structure of the Fittonia (Nerve) plant. Fittonia typically only grow between 100–150mm, but here they are enlarged and elevated to accentuate their form and increase their presence. A low-lying, evergreen, forest floor plant, native to tropical and subtropical forested areas in northern and western South America, Fittonia is also grown as a popular house plant. The Kofan, Siona and Secoya tribes of the Ecuadorian Amazon use Fittonia albivenis as a treatment for headaches and muscular pain, and its leaves were used by the Machiguenga as a hallucinogen before they were introduced to Psychotria viridis. The leaves of this species are prepared as a tea in the northwestern part of the Amazon region and used for toothache.