Graphic Colour explodes off the wall and into the world in Paul Darragh's first sculpture

Matamata born, Tauranga based artist Paul Darragh’s career has been on a meteoric rise since his return to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021. Having spent the preceding decade living and working in Melbourne and New York, where he built an equally brilliant career as a motion graphic designer, Darragh’s return home has been everything he could have imagined, and more. 

Rather than stifling his creativity — as some may argue trading in the thrumming energy and bright lights of the city that never sleeps for the coastal shores of Tauranga might — for Darragh, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Describing the way he works as being akin to a fashion designer, taking elements from far and wide and bringing them together, Tauranga has provided the artist with the clarity and calm he needed to synthesise all his interests — from mid-century and post-modern design, to Loony Tunes cartoons, Andy Warhol, Madonna and the culture of NYC —  and focus his creative energy in one direction: making art. 

Over the past 12 months alone, Darragh has taken over part of the Tauranga Art gallery with his 2023 exhibition Shape Up of Ship Out; been commissioned for multiple public art murals; staged solo shows in Auckland and Wellington, and participated in group shows across the country. Now, in February 2024, the artist will be showing his first sculpture Progress Pillar in Hamilton as part of the Boon Sculpture Trail. 

Days before the opening of the Boon Sculpture Trail, Jessica Agoston Cleary of Artfull talked to Darragh via email about his creative practice and influences, and what it was like to take his signature contemporary pop art off the wall and translate it into the three dimensional world of sculpture.

Jessica Agoston Cleary (JAC) How would you describe or define your art practice generally?

Paul Darragh (PD) I am a visual artist, generally using flat colour and shape as my tools of choice. Primarily my art has taken the form of acrylic paintings on canvas and large wall paintings and murals, however I’m starting to explore sculpture and three dimensional work. My work is abstract and defined by composition to achieve balance and energy. My background as a motion designer has informed my desire to insinuate movement within the static image. 

JAC What or who are your main artistic and creative influences?

PD There are many creative influences in my work, from architecture, furniture design and paintings to cartoons, music and pop culture. 

Painting influences are Stuart Davis, Frank Stella, Peter Halley, Stephen Ormandy, Bridgette Riley, William LaChance and the German duo ZEBU. I love post-modern and mid-century architecture and design, especially Philip Johnson, Le Corbusier, Ettore Sottsass, Peter Shire & Memphis Milano. The film Ruthless People has an incredible title sequence that has always influenced me along with lots of things from my childhood in the 80’s including Chuck Jones's scenes from Looney Tunes cartoons and early Madonna. As a teen I discovered Warhol & Haring and ultimately New York City culture made a huge impact on me. 

JAC Can you tell us about your creative making philosophy?

PD I’ll often have an overarching theme or concept that I’ve been mulling over that will inform the work and keep it cohesive within a show or collection. In that way I think I work more akin to a fashion designer. The paintings are never literal interpretations of this topic, but they are grounded in these ideas. I will often have an experimental phase, where I’m deciding on a colour palette and graphic forms that I want to use, and once I’ve found that language I create various vignettes using these ingredients and they become the paintings. I use digital tools and software such as Adobe Illustrator and Cinema 4D to manipulate and sketch forms especially if I want to distort things in a different dimension.

I like this pairing of digital and analogue techniques within my practice and I’ll often use airbrush to emulate this type of digital rendering style. When I’m drawing the final compositions I like to really be present and let intuition guide the decisions I’m creating. That is my “Don’t think” philosophy, as in; don’t overthink, don’t analyse, just allow the uninterrupted flow from your brain and your soul to your hand. 

That is my “Don’t think” philosophy, as in; don’t overthink, don’t analyse, just allow the uninterrupted flow from your brain and your soul to your hand. 

JAC 'Progress Pillar' is your first sculpture. Did you find you had to alter your approach to making when moving from 2d to 3d? 

PD I found the transition to creating in 3D relatively organic. My background as a designer came with many varied experiences and skill sets. One of those was as an experiential designer in which I would have to design objects and environments for brand experiences. This along with proficiency in 3D Software and designing virtual three dimensional environments made the shift into 3D quite natural. Now I’ve just had to think about how to extrude my paintings in a way to make them three dimensional. What are the key elements from my painting practice that I can apply to sculpture? My artistic motivations of shape, colour, composition, energy and movement are still the same. 

JAC Where did the idea for 'Progress Pillar' come from?

PD The concept of Progress Pillar is to present key events from LGBTQI+ history. This was in response to the location of the Boon Sculpture Walk (located in Hamilton). After my first year out of high school I moved to Hamilton to attend the Mediarts programme at Wintec. This was back in 2000 when I was a young closeted kid struggling with my sexuality. At that time in Hamilton there wasn’t really any positive visibility or role models for young gay people, and if anything you got the feeling that it was best to stay closeted. It wasn’t until the following year that I transferred my studies to Wellington and felt more comfortable and confident to embrace who I was in a bigger and more liberal city. So in the context of presenting something big and public in Hamilton, I thought it would be great to reclaim those anxious former years and create a positive and joyous beacon of LGBTQI+ pride in the centre of town. The sculpture is tall and totemic with a spherical top, intending to represent a proud human figure. On each of the 12 sides of the body are colourful abstractions representing moments in queer history from Aotearoa and abroad. I wanted this to inspire and educate not only LGBTQI+ members of Kirikiriroa and the larger Waikato community but people from any marginalised community to stand up and be proud. It’s titled Progress Pillar and it represents how far I’ve come with self-acceptance and sends a message of hope. Through various projects I’ve contributed to in Hamilton, I have met a truly diverse group of people and that is inspiring to see. 

JAC The sculpture is outdoors, to what extent did the site inform or influence your concept?

PD (Combined with the answer above) + scale. With its location in Garden Place in the Hamilton CBD I knew it would need an impressive scale to register and not fall into the background. It stands at almost 3 meters tall so hopefully it will hold up in this location. 

JAC What have been the biggest challenges with the piece? 

PD To create this piece I’ve engaged with three different vendors to create various pieces; a plastic moulding manufacturer, a carpenter and an engineering firm. So it has been really important to keep all these different people informed of dimensions and changes along the way so it all fits together. Communication really has been key. I don’t think there have really been challenges as much as problem solving. I have absolutely loved collaborating with Longveld, the engineering firm. In addition to big construction and infrastructure projects they also have experience in fabricating public artworks. Initially there was going to be spinning components and a slightly different build, but we decided against that to discourage children and young people climbing on the facade. We also came up with a way to make the entire sculpture come apart making transport simple (for such a large piece). I’ve loved this process of problem solving, the practical elements of a project like this are really interesting to me. 

JAC What were the biggest ahh-ha moments?

PD Researching different moments and people from queer history was very interesting. Most of the topics and individuals I chose, I had a general knowledge of, but it was interesting to really read up on them and try to figure out how to distil the person or moment into a graphic abstraction. I suppose the other ahh-ha moment was to really think about how much of a full circle moment it was to stake a claim of pride in a place that has held past traumas. Art really does have the power to heal.

JAC Often with art making, and life in general, some things happen by design and some things happen by 'happy accident'. Did you find this to be true of your art, and particular with this sculpture?

PD I think with this particular piece there had to be so much planning involved owing to its scale and logistics, so there wasn’t too much room for serendipity. However, as I mentioned, collaborating with the engineers to solve problems was very enjoyable and a lesson in how important it is to be open and collaborative with others, and to work with the best people! 

JAC Can we expect to see more sculptures from you in the future? 

PD Yes definitely. Since creating this piece, I had been shortlisted as one of four for an open call for FONT, Tauranga’s new public art trust. I had to develop an idea for a public sculpture for Tauranga’s Red Square in the CBD. This was a very thorough in-person presentation to the FONT curatorial panel which took several weeks to put together (Renderings, plans, budgets etc). Ultimately FONT chose a different artist, but the experience was incredible and has definitely ignited a desire for more sculpture projects. Again, I collaborated with Longveld on the idea and I just find it so fascinating to understand the logistics of how to fabricate my ideas at a large scale.