Ben Tolhurst still possesses the first brick he carved. I recently spoke to Ben about his sculpture of Presentation founder, Nano Nagle for St Mary’s College in Hobart.
It was while Ben was paving a brick path at his mother- in- law’s house he searched around to find an implement to cut the brick, or specifically a ‘diamond blade’ or ‘angle grinder’. He began to use these implements to carve symbols on his preferred medium of Tasmanian bluestone (the commercial name for dolerite in Tasmania and which incidentally Ben tells me, can wreak havoc on tools!) before moving on to do work in relief and finally three dimensional sculpture.
Even though he began a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, Ben decided university wasn’t for him. With the help of his mentor in South Australia he became a self-taught sculptor.
Before embarking on full time sculpture, Ben had an eclectic career, including working as a deck hand on cray boats and with people with disabilities. His work took him from Canada to New Jersey before finally settling in Tasmania, Ben believes his previous hard physical work has given him an advantage in providing him with the strength to handle what is sometimes 4 tonne of stone!
Ben was recently commissioned by St Marys College to create a statue of Presentation Sister founder Nano Nagle, a woman once voted Irelands greatest and their women of the millennium.
Venerable Honoria Nagle was lovingly known as Nano. Born in County Cork, Ireland into prosperity, the young Nano couldn’t reconcile her life of privilege with the poverty around her. After seeing poor people seeking refuge in a church. Nano was encouraged and inspired to educate the poor although she went further and educated adults as well as children and additionally tended the elderly and infirm in their homes when her day work was done. This after hours work resulted in Nano being given the moniker ‘the lady of the lamp’ and this feature is illustrated in the finished sculpture,
To create a representation of Nano Ben required the school to select a student to pose in silhouette wearing the clothing of the time. Ben says having a living model is important to the process of catching movement in sculpture.
Nano went on to found her community of workers, the religious order, The Sisters of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary or more succinctly, the Presentation Sisters. While the order began providing education to the poor of Ireland it branched out worldwide, including to Tasmania, Australia. Ben has created a magnificent monument to honour Honoria.
Paula Xiberras
