Carl Bennik has begun experimenting with some his latest work.
Carl Bennik has begun experimenting with some his latest work.
A Levin hunter-cum-artist is giving life to old bones.
A few years ago Carl Bennik returned home from the bush with an animal. After taking meat from it he was left with its frame, and decided he wanted to make use of what remained.
“I wanted to respect the animalfor its sacrifice,” he said.
“I wanted to give it life after death.”
Levin artist Carl Bennik works with animal bones from a shed at home.
Bennik began to research how ancient civilisations and cultures treated their animals after death, and so began an artistic journey of discovery of bone art, gaining inspiration from ancient mythologies.
He had always had a keen interest in the myths and legends of Nordic, Māori, Greek, Celtic, Polynesian and Aztec cultures, intrigued by differences and similarities, combining what he was learning with his foray into bone art, and drawing inspiration from it.
An example of Carl Bennik's horn work.
“Before I design any work I study the different religions and beliefs of those people,” he said.
“There are similarities. There is also uniqueness as well.”
“I branched off into Egyptian ... Mesopotamia ... some of the oldest cultures and myths in the world. It can take you back in time.”
Carl Bennik with his hand-crafted art at the Medieval market in Levin earlier this year.
He wanted to broaden his scope of work by learning as much as he could about various cultures and their spirituality, and was conscious his journey might have only begun.
At the heart of it was wanting to give back to the animal he was working with, whether it be pig, goat, cow sheep or deer. He had also worked with eggs.
“I can study it and try to go beyond just books ... it’s a great big world out there and I try and take it all in,” he said.
He buries an animal first and then treats the bones before starting to work on them. He tries to use as much of the animal as he can, even horns, which he made into traditional drinking vessels after lining them with beeswax.
“You get some different reactions. People either love it or they don’t. It’s not everyone’s thing. It’s morbid to a lot of people,” he said.
“Death is a part of life. It’s nothing to be scared of.”
Levin artist Carl Bennik.
“I look at different cultures and the way they approach it ... this had been happening for millennia.”
His workshop is a shed at home and he uses a range of tools in his work: “Modern tools for primitive purposes,” he said.
“It makes you really appreciate people that do use traditional methods — the time and effort that they put it.”
Bennik describes his work as a hobby. He takes his pieces to various shows and fairs and has been commissioned to do work for other animal owners or hunters.
He was always looking to evolve and modernise what was an ancient tradition and had purchased a welding machine to enable him to incorporate steelwork in some of the designs, even incorporating “steam punk” into his work.
“I don’t want to suffocate it. I want to be creative,” he said.
