In the hands of Katikati artist Marcel Zwezerijnen, two rusty old plough
discs have become the wings of a swooping New Zealand falcon.

Marcel Zwezerijnen used old plough discs to fashion the wings for his award-winning falcon sculpture.

The transformation won Marcel first prize in the 2013 New Zealand Mural Contest and Arts Festival sculpture competition. Now, the falcon, which took Marcel 75 hours to create, will become part of Katikati's Bird Walk alongside the Uretara Stream.

'The plough discs were ideal for the wings, because they were already pretty much the right shape,” says Marcel, who turned to Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre in Rotorua for inspiration and accuracy in designing and crafting the falcon.

'Wingspan was very helpful. They supplied me with a number of photographs of falcon, taken from different angles, and I had these pinned up around my workshop to help create the sculpture.”

Marcel used other pieces of scrap metal and old machinery to fashion the bird, employing skills he learned as a fitter and turner and from blacksmithing work. The body is made from 4 mm plate steel, heated in a gas-powered forge and then worked into shape. The finished bird is in flight, talons extended, as if to capture its prey. It is not his only piece on public display. In 2012, Marcel was commissioned to create Taupo's much photographed Giant Bike, the biggest piece he has worked on so far.

Marcel, who calls his business Forged Art, enjoys turning what others may consider useless scrap metal into things of beauty. While his falcon is very life-like (if not larger than life), and as anatomically accurate as he could achieve, other pieces are more abstract. Born in Taupo to Dutch parents Bill and Cathy, Marcel has, during visits to family in Europe, been inspired by art in galleries, museums and public spaces.

'I'm inspired by the Art Nouveau period and artists like Salvador Dali, August Endell and Hector Guimard,” says Marcel.

While it's the style of those artists and that period which influences technique and form, everyday life from a comment someone may make to the lyrics of a song often spark the idea for a sculpture.

Marcel likes to provoke thought and conversation through his work – and that's never more so than in a piece called ‘Broken Earth', which is a sculpture of Planet Earth, torn apart and weeping lava from its core.

'Broken Earth reflects on the damage we have inflicted on the earth. The failing stitching represents our feeble attempt to repair the damage done.”

Finding ways to make steel bend, or mold it to suit his designs, is often challenging – and Marcel admits to using unconventional means at times.

'On one occasion, I cut a steel pipe in half lengthways, and then flattened it by driving over it with my truck.” Other times, the scrap metal he works with presents its own inspiration, like the pitted piece of steel which looked so much like the surface of a rough ocean Marcel used it as the base for an albatross in flight.

'In my days working in the engineering industry, I couldn't resist going for a good scrounge through the scrap steel dump nearly every day. I always found something with interesting shapes and textures. There's something about rusty steel that just grabs my attention.”

Marcel is keen to buy (or accept donations of) old farm machinery, scrap steel and copper, to turn into artworks. He can be contacted on 021 1138 507, or by emailing: [email protected]

For more information, visit his website: www.forgedart.co.nz