Art is always stepping forward then going back, it does these manoeuvres. Otherwise we’d be sitting here in a black room with a white square behind us

This Cultural Icons programme is an enlightening and candid interview between artist Nigel Brown and writer/musician Denys Trussell.

“Nigel Brown has established a reputation as one the most important figurative artists working in New Zealand and is acknowledged as New Zealand’s leading narrative artist. His distinctive works are a blend of symbolic and expressionistic approaches with a deep social concern”. (Milford Galleries)

Nigel and Denys are friends and collaborators; in 2004 Nigel exhibited a series of work inspired by ‘The Dance of the Origin’, a poem by Denys. The interview takes a conversational form with the two talking about (among other things) the future of painting, the relationship between poetic words and visuals in Nigel’s work and his use of recurring symbols, such as the axe man, driveways and the little dog.