Monday 18 April 2005

pix from yesterday.

Here's three or four snaps of the sculptures I liked most from the finalists in this year's Helen Lempriere Sculpture award. Sometimes art prizes are a bit of a crock, but this one is usually very good: & the judges of this competition, whoever they are, generally choose the right winners, i reckon. I can't seemt to locate the catalogue, so if you want to know the names of any of there or who made them, sorry can't help ya.



We liked this one, a lot. It's just verging on whimsy-cutesiness, but doesn't quite go there - it's nice when somebody takes that risk but doesn't wholly succumb. The dude on the pedestal, or under it rather, is Charles La Trobe, erstwhile guv'nor.



This one is nice, too. It's carved wood, and about 1&1/2 times the height of a person.



a girl sculpture.



a boy sculpture.



The winner. This one I do remember the name: "The Comrade's Reward." Those coloured spots are lights, which presumably flash at night. Cool, huh. I'd have it in my front yard. (kid not included.)

9 comments:

Scrivener said...

I love that upside down pedestal. I think part of what saves it from being too cutesie is that it looks so unwieldy, like it should topple over at any moment. So there's a drama built in to the piece that goes beyond the joke of the upside-down govnr. You're making me wish that I could find some fun sculpture around here to play along...

lucy tartan said...

yeah!

there's the old, unfunny-ish joke too about how everything in the antipodes is upside-down.

BwcaBrownie said...

The Comrade's Reward . . . .is a beautiful nude boy?
I recognise the Niki StPhalle piece - she has been big since the 1960's.
I have always wanted a totem pole and thought old phone poles could be carved with magpies and kookaburras and would look great in private gardens.
Thank you for all that visual enlightenment.

BwcaBrownie said...

OMG that's Werribee Park so the sculpture is not Niki StP - it's that Australian sculptor with the thing in the moat at the Arts Centre. how embarrassment for me . .and for her.

Scrivener said...

As far as the unfunnyish joke goes, though, the Simpsons episode where they go to Australia and the American embassy has spent millions of dollars to make the water go down the drain in reverse is funny.

lucy tartan said...

Don't forget to pick me up from the station at 6.30!
Dorian


Oh, it's communicating with me via the blog now, is it?
I'm not sure how I can 'remember' to pick you up from the station at 6.30 if you never asked me to in the first place. did you get the email I sent at lunchtime darling? How are the greek priests today? Behaving themselves I hope.
x x Laura
ps I will come to the station to get you at 6.30 if you like, however as the Shameless dvd has turned up, I think you should leave work now.

lucy tartan said...

oh shit, I just remembered the bill is on tonight, maybe we can tape it somehow.
come home!

Anonymous said...

I really like Deborah Halpern's work because she is a terrible traitor to Melbourne. Colour AND sensuality together.

But my friends who know about these things mock me terribly and throw food and say she is crap.

Why do I have deluded friends?

- barista

lucy tartan said...

I have mixed feelings about Halpern's stuff in general - that sculpture at werribbee, I was a little sad to see, becasue it looks like a good artist repeating herself.
But the Angel in the moat outside the NGV? I thought it was marvellous. Anyone who didn't like it, probably doesn't like sunshine or happiness either.

I don't think they intend to put it back, either. Suppose Bellini screwed up his nose at it. Well, he wrecked the inside of the gallery, so why not the outside as well.