A Pilgrimage
The Wands
– Bendigo
The Wands, featuring five interconnected wooden sculptural works rubbings with words and a soundscape. All the works are focused on the theme – The Wands as 5 stations of life.
WAND #1
AMOEBA
A bush setting is the setting, placed at the Latrobe University adjacent to the Environmental Education Centre and invites reflection on the seed of life, its transformation, and infinite possibilities. As a piece connected to the cycle of birth, it will encourage those who visit it to consider their own journey from potential to being.
WAND #2
MATTER BECOMING
Will be installed at St John of God – Bendigo Health Hospital. In the main atrium. With its raw and visceral form, challenges the visitor to embrace the tension of masculine and feminine energies, celebrating the evolution of self in all its untidy, powerful beauty.
WAND #3
BOWL OF PLENTY
With its symbolic carvings of the letters
E A R T H E A R T H E A R T H
will stand as a reminder of abundance, surrender and the human capacity for consuming. Located at the Old Church On the Hill, it will extend a warm invitation to those searching for community and connection.
WAND #4
TRANSCENDENCE
The most intricate and profound of the works, being figurative, will be installed in the Sacred Heart Cathedral, where it will resonate within the sacred space, embodying the tension between the earthly materiality and the spiritual.
WAND #5
The River of Tears
Also known as ‘Charon’s Punt’, the wounded healer whom carries the dead across the river Stix, a transition from the earthly realms, is placed in the local cemetery in Quarry Hill, will become a quiet companion to those mourning, its silent message of passage offering a moment of contemplation on grief and transition.
“ An unusual opportunity to walk and meditate on life in the quant setting of Bendigo, an historic gold mining town ”
Jane Miller
The Wands Launch
The Beehive Building – Bendigo
The Wands sculpture exhibition comprises five intricate sculptures carved from the same 100-year-old pine tree that fell during a storm in Victoria. The Wands are welcomed to Country by the Dja Dja Wurrung. Wrigley’s work is supported in collaboration with Kelly Hartland and Aimee Chapman – Hartland contributing words and rubbings and Chapman creating sound works, extending the visitor experience. 13th – 16th March 2025
Inspiration Behind the Wands
The inspiration behind The Wands stems from Ben’s deep connection to the natural and spiritual worlds and his personal journey through loss and healing. After the death of his mother, Ben found solace in sculpting, using the act of creation as a way to process grief. His work began with a fallen 100-year-old pine tree, which he saw as a living, breathing entity—much like the divination tools used by witches and warlocks, who traditionally craft their wands from live trees with the tree’s permission. This tree became the foundation for the wands, each sculptural piece representing different stages of life, from the birth of existence (Amoeba) to transcendence and the eternal flow of life and death (River of Tears). The wands thus serve not only as sculptures but as spiritual tools, each carved from the same tree and symbolizing an interconnectedness of life, death, and transformation. Through this process, Ben channels his personal experience with grief and healing into a universal narrative about the flow of life and the forces of nature..
