Brisbane painter, printmaker and sculptor, Nevil Matthews, was one of Australia's first Hard-Edge Abstractionists. This sculpture, in the High Modernist tradition of David Smith, focuses on the formal interplay of balance, line and harmony. The strength and beauty of the work lie in the balanced monumentality of its scale and the fragility of the perfectly poised leaves of metal. Its title "Genesis", suggests that the paired objects may represent a male and female principle – a closed 'passive' element and an open 'active' element. However, the structures themselves are sexually ambiguous and more likely refer to a growth, from bud to flower, seed to shoot. Beth Jackson, February 1992