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Artist and poet Roger Hickin was born in Invercargill in 1951. His first love, poetry, led him to Jerusalem, a small Maori settlement on the Whanganui River during the 1970's, where James K. Baxter resided. A decade later working with recycled timber he made distinctive frames for Dunedin artist Ralph Hotere, an experience that led to him to establish his own career in visual arts. Exhibiting for more than twenty years, his work has been included in major collections, most notably the Christchurch Art Gallery, who purchased a large salvaged weatherboard work, Lathwood Reredos #1 in 2001.

Untitled (Brass, Kauri and Fire Series #17) 1991, is constructed from found materials that have not been overworked. Scratched, charred and beaten, Hickin presents a potent image of the Passion of Christ, life and death, and the hopes and failings of ordinary mortals. Hope/humour win over despair, manifest in a pot and the end of a golden rainbow.