Sydney_sculpture_walk - Lynne Roberts

Sydney Sculpture Walk
FACTSHEET
Up to 20 contemporary artworks by leading Australian and international artists are
being commissioned to form a circuit through the heart of Sydney.
• A major City of Sydney initiative for the 2000 Olympics and the 2001 Centenary
of Federation, the Sydney Sculpture Walk provides a uniquely artistic
experience of the city to Sydneysiders and visitors alike.
• The circuit of artworks invites people to explore - on foot - the city’s green open
parklands, bustling city centre and major civic and historical precincts.
• The walk threads its way through the new Cook and Phillip Park, the Domain,
the Royal Botanic Gardens, East Circular Quay and city streets to Martin Place
and Hyde Park.
• Funded by the City of Sydney and the corporate sector, Sydney Sculpture Walk
artworks are being commissioned in stages up to 2001.
• The first ten artworks have been completed in time for the Olympics. The works
are by Australian artists Debra Phillips, Robyn Backen, Bronwyn Oliver, Janet
Laurence and Jisuk Han, Lynne Roberts-Goodwin, Nigel Helyer, Anne Graham,
Brenda L. Croft and Fiona Hall, as well as Japanese artist Kimio Tsuchiya.
• Each artwork is site-specific and created in direct response to its location.
• Each is developed from a commissioning brief that requires the artist to contribute
in a dynamic way to an appreciation and understanding of Sydney’s environment
and character.
• The artworks deal with issues such as memory, history, identity, language and the
environment.
• They utilise a diverse range of materials including sandstone, glass, marble, solar
power, steel, copper, terrazzo, fibre-optic lighting, fog, trees, sound and marine
buoys.
• The Sydney Sculpture Walk is the first curated program of specially
commissioned artworks to be installed in Central Sydney.
• The Sculpture Walk constitutes an important artistic attraction for the Olympics
and the Centenary of Federation.
• It also endows the City of Sydney with a significant artistic legacy for future
generations of residents, workers and visitors.
www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Debra Phillips
Viva Voce
Installed: June 1999
One red stepladder and five marble clad
pedestals are arranged amongst the
trees at Speaker’s Corner in the
Domain. The work acknowledges the
historical and contemporary importance
of the area as a site of public oratory.
Vernacular forms are employed to
encourage the continuation of active
debate at the site. The marble pedestals
take the generic form of soapboxes and
the steel A-framed stepladder is coated
in epoxy red paint, each step incised
with a word inviting interaction such as
speak, heckle, listen, ponder, question.
The sculptures are placed in close
proximity to each other in order to
enhance interaction between the
speakers.
Viva Voce... commemorates speakers
such as the rationalist, Charlie King, who
kept the site alive from 1960 to 1994 by
addressing his audience from the podium
of a red stepladder. In addition to local
history the use of marble draws upon
the classical tradition of public oratory
and ideals of democracy in Ancient
Greece.
Debra Phillips completed a Master of
Arts at the University of Sydney.
Exhibiting in public and private galleries
throughout Australia, her solo shows
include Debra Phillips: Work 1992-1995
at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
and Sillage at the Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art in Melbourne and
Artspace in Sydney.
Robyn Backen
Archaeology of
Bathing
Installed: June 1999
The installation acknowledges Mrs Biggs’
Ladies Baths built on this site at
Woolloomooloo Bay in 1833. It reflects
upon the history of and cultural attitudes
towards bathing in the new colony,
recalling inventions such as the bathing
machine used to protect ladies from
sharks and the attention of men while
they bathed.
Steel steps lead down from an entrance
frame on the shoreline to a cage-like
structure representing the old bathing
machines used at the baths. A floating
jetty recording tidal movement leads out
from the cage to navigational cardinals
marking the perimeter of the original
baths, and scattered throughout the
bathing area are solar powered buoys.
The naval presence in Woolloomooloo
Bay is signified by Morse code messages
in lights around the entrance frame,
triggered by people approaching the
site. The tide machines also draw our
attention to the littoral - the slippage
between high and low tide - which is an
important element within the
conceptual framework of the artist’s
overall practice.
Robyn Backen has exhibited widely in
Australia and Europe. She has studied
sculpture in Amsterdam and Salzburg
under Marcus Lupertz and Edvardo
Paolozzi, and has undertaken public
commissions in Sydney, Canberra and
Liverpool. Her most recent commisson
was for the Sydney International Airport.
Janet Laurence & Jisuk Han
Veil of Trees
Installed: June 1999
A one hundred metre curvilinear passage
of new red-gums, native grass plantings,
and glass panels containing ash, honey,
seeds and resin runs along the central
spine of the Lawson site in the Domain.
LED lights in the panels illuminate the
passage at night creating a poetic and
fluid environment that reflects both the
architectural and the natural
surroundings.
The Lawson site is rejuvenated by the
plantings of species that were once
found in the area, and the organic
material enclosed in the panels the
botanical history of the Domain. Some
of the glass panels are inscribed with
fragments of writings inspired by the
landscape taken from poems and essays
by various Australian authors.
Janet Laurence has exhibited extensively
in Australia, Asia, New Zealand and
Europe. Her permanent public
commissions include Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier in Canberra, 49 Veils
for the Central Synagogue of Sydney and
Edge of the Trees in collaboration with
Fiona Foley, for the Museum of Sydney.
Jisuk Han is an exhibition designer
currently working on projects at the
Sydney Opera House, Powerhouse
Museum, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
and the South Australian Museum. She
collaborated with Janet Laurence on 49
Veils for the Central Synagogue.
Nigel Helyer
Dual Nature
Installed: December 1999
Shell-like objects fashioned from corten
steel are mounted on the foreshore and
seabed, with crane elements placed
between them. The installation is
animated by sound reflecting the
maritime, natural and social history of
Woolloomooloo Bay.
Partly submerged at high tide, the water
sculptures will eventually form an
organic patina - resulting in a hybrid
appearance of marine organism and
industrial hulk. They are intended to act
as natural reverberation chambers, and
these ambient sounds mix with the
pre-recorded soundscape entitled Ebb
and Flow that emanates from the land
based sculptures.
Ebb and Flow relates to the departure
and arrival of ships in the bay, recalling
the history of migrant movement to
Sydney and of civilian departure from
Sydney in times of war. Evoking
abandoned hulks or wrecks, the
sculptures also draw on the artist’s
memories of childhood discoveries.
Nigel Helyer is a sculptor and
sound-artist. He has exhibited in Europe,
Australia, the UK and Asia and has
undertaken artist residencies in Korea,
the USA, France, Thailand, Vietnam,
New Zealand, Lapland and Australia.
His public art commissions include
sculpture for the Seoul Olympic Park
and most recently a graphic and audio
installation in the Helsinki subway
system in Finland.
Bronwyn Oliver
Magnolia and Palm
Installed: June 1999
Nestled amongst the trees near Farm
Cove in the Royal Botanic Gardens is a
pair of overscaled seed or pod-like
sculptures made of copper. Placed
adjacent to the site of the First Farm in
Sydney Cove, the artist has employed
the seed form as a sign of new
beginnings, laden with the potential for
growth and transformation.
Historically the site provided the new
colony with sustenance and food crops
from European seeds and is still used
today for the propagation of new and
exotic species.
Rippling copper rods branch upwards
from a granite base, like veins towards a
tapered tip. The surface is covered in
thin curling tendrils of copper echoing
the qualities of husks or seed-shells
found amongst the surrounding foliage in
the gardens.
Bronwyn Oliver is a Masters graduate
from the Chelsea School of Art in
London and has exhibited in Australia
and overseas. She is the recipient of
numerous awards including the Moet
and Chandon Australian Art Foundation
Fellowship in 1994.
Brenda L. Croft
Wuganmagulya
(Farm Cove)
Installed: August 2000
This installation is integrated into the
new paving of the harbourside pathway
at Farm Cove. It commemorates the
historical and contemporary presence
and importance of Indigenous people in
Australia.
Focusing on two sections of the pathway
the work incorporates various elements
such as stained concrete, terrazzo and
engraved Aboriginal rock carvings. The
colours and materials reference the
indigenous life and natural elements of
the surrounding environment.Names,
etched in red along the pathway kerb,
are of men and women, places, animals,
tools and rituals from the many clans and
language groups of the Sydney area.
Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove) pays homage
to the Yura (original clans of the site) and
to the Indigenous clans who travelled
great distances to attend ceremonies at
Sydney Cove. It also acknowledges
contemporary indigenous history such as
the 1988 March of Peace through the
Domain and Gardens in protest of the
Bicentennial Celebrations.
Submission detail: photographic detail of site overlaid with sketches of text and pictographs.
Brenda L. Croft is a member of the
Gurindji nation from the Northern
Territory, and was a founding member of
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. She has been exhibiting since
1986 in Australian and Europe, and has
been awarded studios in New York,
Chicago and Canada. Her work was
included in the recent Biennale of
Dialogue in Kassel, Germany.
Fiona Hall
Folly for Mrs
Macquarie
Installed: August 2000
Drawing upon historical, geographic and
cultural aspects of the time and rule of
Governor Macquarie and his wife, the
artwork is a contemporary `folly'.
Located in front of the grounds of
Government House looking over to Mrs
Macquarie's Point and through to the
head of the harbour, the artwork implies
an element of folly in the optimistic act
of superimposing old world traditions
onto foreign surroundings.
Formal elements are expressed in the
neo-classical gothic style favoured by the
Macquaries and include a range of
references - indigenous and introduced
plant species, early colonial tools, the
clasped dagger from Macquarie’s crest
and fencing.The false ceiling represents
interlocking animal bones of native
species, which would once have
inhabited the site. Sunken seating
provides a place to pause, sit and
contemplate the views over the harbour.
Fiona Hall has exhibited widely in
Australia and overseas including the Art
Gallery of NSW, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, the Queensland Art
Gallery amongst others. In 1997 she
was awarded the prestigous Contempora
5 award and in 1998 she completed a
major sculptural garden for the National
Gallery of Australia.
Submission detail: Maquette of proposed artwork.
Kimio Tsuchiya
Memory is Creation
Without End
Installed: April 2000
Kimio Tsuchiya has embedded into the
earth of the Tarpeian Way a massive
spiral of sandstone blocks - relics from
demolished buildings and structures such
as the Pyrmont Bridge.
Each piece of discarded stone, carved
and embellished by stone-masons of the
past, but darkened with age and scarred
from use, testifies to their lost function,
place and history and to the loss of those
old buildings in the collective memory.
Once quarried for the city’s early
sandstone buildings and to provide fill for
the creation of Circular Quay, the
Tarpeian Way is now but a thin veneer of
earth covering the Sydney Harbour
Tunnel. Seemingly emerging from yet at
the same time sinking back into the
ground the artwork resembles an
archaeology of the city.
Tsuchiya uses the spiral shape to
symbolise the circular connection of
past, present and future. In salvaging
and assembling the stones into this new
configuration unifying sculpture and
landscape the artist seeks to endow
them with new life, meaning and
memory.
Born in 1955 Fukui, Japan, Tsuchiya
completed a MA Sculpture from the
Chelsea School of Art, London in 1989.
He has been the recipient of numerous
prizes and awards, such as the grand
prize at the 14th Japan Contemporary
Sculpture Exhibition in 1991. He has
exhibited widely throughout Japan,
Europe and the States and has
completed public art commissions in the
UK, France and Scandanavia.
Lynne Roberts - Goodwin
Tankstream - Into the
head of the cove...
Installed: June 1999
Into the head of the cove... marks the
course of the Tank Stream - Sydney’s
first water supply - with five key sites
through the city from Pitt Street Mall to
Alfred Street. Set into the pavement
above the existing subterranean stream
are coloured glass modules overlapping
and angled away from stainless steel
lines. The angles represent the flow of
the Tank Stream in relation to the
direction of Pitt Street - comparing the
natural and man-made conduits of
energy in the city.
The glass rods are lit from below
creating a sense of flow beneath the
surface, and the steel rods are etched
with Watkin Tench’s historical text and a
diagram mapping the course of the
stream. At the final site on Alfred Street
the rods splay to represent the delta as
the stream flows into Sydney Cove.
The location of Sydney was chosen by
Governor Phillip because of the Tank
Stream, and it remained the city’s only
water supply until the 1850’s. This work
aims to make people aware of the
presence and historical importance of
the Tank Stream in the development of
Sydney.
Lynne Roberts-Goodwin is a Masters
graduate from Manchester University in
the UK. She has exhibited in Australia,
New Zealand, Europe, the UK and USA,
with recent solo exhibitions at the Art
Gallery of New South Wales and Interim
Art Gallery in London. Her work is
represented in public and private
collections in Australia and overseas.
Anne Graham
Passage
Installed: February 2000
Set into granite paving is a stylised
footprint of the Georgian houses once
occupying the site in Martin Place. This
work acknowledges the architectural
and cultural history of early Sydney,
referencing surrounding Georgian
buildings such as the Conservatorium,
the Museum of Sydney, the Barracks and
the Mint.
The house plan, taken from Joseph
Fowles book, Sydney 1848, is marked
out by polished black granite paving and
metal grilles lit from below, through
which a light mist rises evoking ghostlike walls. Three fountains at one end
(the ablution area of the original house)
are made of elliptical bowls based on the
form of Georgian sponging pans.
The artist is particularly interested in the
workings of the city as a metaphor for
the living body, portrayed here by the
water elements and mist which animates
the site by rising and falling like breath.
Anne Graham is Head of the School of
Fine Art at the University of Newcastle,
currently undergoing a PhD at the Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her
performances and installations have been
shown nationally and internationally and
she has been granted studios in New
York and Tokyo. Her most recent
commission was for the Echigo - Tsumari
Art Triennial in Japan.
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Debra Phillips
Robyn Backen
Janet Laurence & Jisuk Han
Nigel Helyer
Bronwyn Oliver
Brenda L. Croft
Fiona Hall
Kimio Tsuchiya
Lynne Roberts-Goodwin
Anne Graham
Forthcoming Artworks