Nicky Hirst

CONCEPT OF ARTWORK

I have taken inspiration from the first stanza of the famous poem by William Blake.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

The tiger has a dark graphite base with an applied motif of bright orange graphic flames. All over the world, there are stories alluding to the phoenix or firebird rising from the ashes and symbolising renewal. Like Tx2 - the global initiative to double wild tigers - my heraldic tiger emerges from catastrophe bolder and more powerful.

ABOUT NICKY HIRST (UK)

My work is best described as an exploration of serendipity. Sources may be places, people, objects or words, which I then shift, manipulate or juxtapose. By noticing what is already there I hope to reveal a visual poetry in the ordinary and every-day. When I was a child, two things used to bother me a lot. I had heard that a giant squid could blanket Piccadilly Circus in London and if we pulled out our intestines they would reach the length of a tennis court. It is this absurdity of scale and an interest in unexpected connections that keeps me wanting to make things I have never seen before.