You’ve heard of the ‘pub with no beer’, well it’s being built alongside the new freeway from Mitcham to Frankston. It won’t have any guests either, or even any access to it; no-one will ever go there.
And just down the road is a giant, angular, blackbird pecking at a huge, yellow, cubist worm.
These are two of the twelve sculptures being installed along the new road.
Hotel is by Callum Morton who, you will remember, represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2007 with his Valhalla, a ruined building made from polystyrene. Architecture predominates in his works the fountain-head being his discovery that his parents’ dream house built by his architect father and in which he lived as a child was in ruins.
And the black bird with the yellow worm, well, that’s by Emily Floyd. Birds have featured a lot in her work and in this one entitled Public Art Strategy she alludes to the sometimes controversial nature of public art.
Other sculptures involve coloured ellipsoids, fallen pylons, red rings, lumps of stone, a silhouette of a little boy and, not surprisingly, a sculpture based on Nolan’s image of Ned Kelly.
These sculptures will be around for a long time to come and will no doubt cause controversy with the attendant attribution of vernacular titles such as ‘Yellow Peril’, ‘The Cheese Sticks and, in England, ‘The Gateshead Flasher’.
This is a unique display of public art and if you want a closer look you can walk or cycle along the 40 kilometre path alongside the freeway. This is an initiative in which we, particularly as sculptors, can all rejoice.
Eastlink will open in the middle of the year in the meantime look up the website, www.connecteast.com.au.
John Wooller
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