Lot 55: Paul Dibble Calici Smile bronze signed and dated

Paul Dibble Calici Smile bronze signed and dated 2001 660mm x 950mm x 110mm Calici Smile is at once a grim and humorous indictment on vermin control. The rabbits in this delightfully whimsical work of Paul Dibble's have obviously escaped the horrors of the dreaded calicivirus; either that or they have crossed over to rabbit paradise and are dancing under the deliciously curving smile of the disembodied lips. More modeled than many of Dibble's pieces, the hand made form of the rabbits, have an enlivened surface and vitality, in contrast to the smoothly sweeping lips. Paul Dibble is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, Martin Browne, Sydney and the Black Barn Gallery, Hawkes Bay. EF