Henry D’Ath
Henry D’Ath is a New Zealand–born artist and architect based in Hong Kong. Drawing from both his architectural background and agricultural upbringing, his practice explores the relationship between perception, place, and material through furniture and sculpture. Working primarily with salvaged and hand-worked materials, D’Ath creates pieces that balance utility with a distinctly sculptural presence.
Rooted in a process of making and material experimentation, his work investigates the tensions between rural memory and contemporary experience. Through carefully crafted forms and a deep engagement with materiality, D’Ath develops objects that blur the boundaries between art, design, and architecture, revealing unexpected narratives embedded within everyday materials and forms.
Interview
I was born in Dannevirke, a rural town in New Zealand. I’m now based in Hong Kong, working from my studio there.
For a long time, I was kilometers away from my nearest neighbor, let alone a museum or gallery. I think my first memory would have to be an illustrated portrait of an indigenous American on the back of the bathroom door in my childhood home. It had a short description that talked about the connection with the land and the living environment. I couldn’t tell you much more about it than that, but I was always looking at it.
When I was younger, I would work on the farm after school or during the holidays. It was mostly building/tending to fences and machinery. It wouldn’t be strictly classified as art or design, but there are certain exposures/experiences of being a farmhand that are very artistic or design-oriented. This early exposure to craft led to a degree in Architecture, which I still practice alongside my sculpture work.
Architecture opened my eyes to a way of thinking that I’m thankful for. I always had a curiosity for how things were constructed in a basic sense. This matured to the more intellectual side of why things are made through Architecture. Architecture then pulled me toward galleries, and galleries naturally pulled me toward art/design.
I best understand things physically so I tend to develop through making. Sometimes I will sketch to round out the image of what I’m making.
Influences come predominantly from the work itself or the works prior. I seem to work in this linear way. Collections can happen in parallel to each other, but the traits of each collection are a development of the last. Because of this, I don’t think I want to ever finish a collection or call it complete. I like that I can continue elaborating on ideas.
I do my administrative tasks first during the day. This is a sort of self-discipline; if I don’t do these first, then they probably wouldn’t get done. Once the i’s are dotted, then I’m in the workshop until usually too late in the day.
Familiarity. I have always used wood. It was a working material introduced to me early on. I like the history it has in objects, and although very basic, it holds a certain value with people.
I also like the conflict created when the sincerity of wood is used against far more processed materials. It makes for very interesting dialogues.
Similar to the conflict at play in the materiality, I use some contradictory methods of production. My work can be very technically ambiguous. At times, I will spend days being delicate and slow with a hammer and chisel, with bursts of chainsawing and grinding.
I feel I am still at the very beginning of things, and my frame of mind tends towards consuming advice rather than giving. I suppose that’s the advice I would have for others at this stage, that is, to be receptive to any advice from those willing to part with it. And maybe search out others doing similar things to you.
Maybe a kind of ruffled zoomorphic/biomorphic/surrealist/abstraction cocktail?
In the way of designers/artists…Wendell Castle, Isamu Noguchi, Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi, Smiljan Radic, Lina Bo Bardi, Valerio Olgiati, Peter Zumthor, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Michael Heizer, H.R. Giger…it does change a bit.
Also, it may sound like a bit of a cliché, but nature had a huge effect on me, so I should give Mother Earth a shout-out here.
The work of Misha Kahn, Batten and Kamp, Vincenzo De Cotiis, Reiger Douglas, Katie Stout, Virtue Village, Den Holm, Li Hei Di, and David Douard is currently in my feed.
Same as above.
I wouldn’t have a clue. An urban/natural post-industrial love interest?
“I best understand things physically, so I tend to develop through making.”
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
An endless stream of tools
Failure/irrelevance
Self-examination
Absolutes
My partner
My friendships
What’s next?
Idealism
Benevolence
Benevolence
Really?
All the talents I don’t currently have
I don’t think there would be any
My work
I don’t know
Somewhere where the sea meets mountains
My body
War/conflict
Being an artist
Humor
A sense of humor
Ted Chuang, Cixian Liu, Ken Liu, Hunter S Thompson, Frank Herbert…mostly sci-fi…
Couldn’t say
Wouldn’t know
People who continue to try
Would depend on the person
People not walking on the correct side of the pavement
I think I’m still to make it
When I’m ready
I’m still coming up with one
“Collections can happen in parallel to each other, but the traits of each collection are a development of the last.”
SHARE :
