David Mangin

My artworks, and the Bengellis collages I began in 2006, are constructed as visual metaphors—images that invite questions rather than offer resolution. Visually ambiguous expressions that encourage viewers to participate in the image-making process itself, evoking memory and triggering the imagination.

Using a range of materials, many of the images begin as physically constructed scenes, assembled and worked by hand.

Each work is first conceived as a complete image, then printed in smaller sections, torn, reassembled and physically rebuilt. From a distance the image may appear seamless, yet on closer encounter the joins, edges and layered surfaces reveal the act of construction itself.

The imagery draws on memory, observation and collected fragments of the world around me—elements I see, retain and later reconfigure. These works explore the fragile transience of life, the cycles of birth, growth and decay, and the enduring presence of mystery.

Whether through human form, symbolic landscapes, or abstracted elements of nature, there is a continual search for timelessness. With few exceptions, the images resist being fixed within a specific era. The world presented is primal, unadorned—allowing space for reflection on humanity, en...

Certificate of Business
Centre for Adult Education
1996

Studied for Diploma of Illustrative Photography
1982/1985. Photographic Studies College. Melbourne, Australia.

School Certificate (New Zealand)
Mana College (New Zealand)
1972

1973 Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand) Group Exhibition. 1986 “Metamorphosis” at Printed Image Gallery (Melbourne, Australia) Solo Exhibition. 1989. “Snowfire” at Exposures Gallery (Wellington, New Zealand) Solo Exhibition. 1992. “Retrospective” Solo Exhibition of forty framed works, 422 Collins St Melbourne. 1994. “Summer Salon” Group Exhibition, Centre for Contemporary Photography. 2000. “Jewelled Daggers” at Eternal Arts Gallery (Melbourne, Australia)
PUBLICATIONS
Camera Craft April 1984, Volume 5 No 11, p 82 “Backstage”. Photoworld Volume 17 No 10, p75 “In Close”. Camera Craft June 1994, Volume 6 No 1, p62-63, 66 “Gemini”, “Untitled”. Photoworld Volume 17 No 11, p74 “The Dove”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 1, p72 “Emotion”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 4, p76 “Fire and Flowers”. Camera Craft December 1984, Volume 6 No 7, p67 “Kallista”. Photoworld Volume 8 No 6, p76 “Driftwood”. Photoworld Annual 1985, p107 “Untitled”. Camera Craft April 1985, Volume 6 No 11, p79 “Afterglow”. Camera Craft November 1986, Volume 8 No 6, Snowfire Series Portfolio: p1 “The Solitude”; p36 “The Vision”; p37 “The Betrayal” and “The Deluge”; p38 “The Consummation”. Beat Magazine No 145, June 1989. “Snowfire”. New Zealand Geograph...