Frankston Freeway Sculpture Failure

I've thought about this for a little while. So much of what we do as artists never sees the light of day, especially our failed efforts in big competitive public commissions. The images on this page, come from my submission for the Southern Way (near Frankston) McClelland Gallery Freeway Sculpture competition, won by Dean Colls with his large ram's skull recently shown in the Herald- Sun.

The pictures on this page show a work that was to be a self contained and totally relocatable, solar powered museum that contained one perfectly lit carved marble sculpture. I like this idea a lot and feel that it is an optimistic statement that encourages people to consider sustainability.

Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture - Soiree at the Sofitel

Soiree at the Sofitel

Tough life being a sculptor! Its not not all standing out in my freezing studio rasping knuckles against stone, on Thursday evening we spent a very pleasant time, meeting the sponsors, other competitors, judges and organisers of the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2011 up on the 35th floor of the Sofitel - from the plate glass floor to ceiling windows we could look down on our sculpture sites in Federation Square - and - the MCG, Governent House, NGV and out into the bay - Spectacular!! Wine and nibbles were pretty good too!!

Even found time to visit my old mate Alfred Felton and spend time at the Vienna show at the NGVI.

image: Clive Murray-White - The Alfred Felton Centenary Sculpture, commissioned by the Felton Bequest. 2004

Red Sock Nostalgia

Here's a bit of a blast from the past! something that'll take all those poor students of mine back to their first sculpture class, yes it's the dreaded red sock!!!

For those of you who never attended my classes a little explanation may be in order, picture a sculpture studio in any of our art schools, it's furniture is pushed back towards the walls and there is a lonely chair just sitting in the middle. This is what greeted countless generations of fresh faced enthusiastic first year students.

I take up my position on the chair and start explaining that sculpture is different to the other subjects taught in art schools, for a start it exists in real space, is made of real stuff, can be made from anything and can be very easy to do...........

I take my right shoe and sock off (always guaranteed to keep the student's attention!) and I put the sock on the chair (just like the picture above) and ask, "Why does this work?"

Followed by, "What can we do to improve it?"

And as they juggled socks around, tried re-orientating the chair etc, etc, I quietly said to myself, "Welcome to sculpture!"

Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2011

Isaac Greener & Lucas Maddock
Bianca Hester
Sonia Leber & David Chesworth
Clive Murray-White
Tom Nicholson
Stuart Ringholt

2011 Finalists

An exhibition of the above finalists will be held at Federation Square between

7 and 21 November 2011.

The $5,000 Civic Choice Award 2011 will be open for voting, at this website, only during the November exhibition dates.

All announcements will be made at
www.melbourneprizetrust.org

As you may be able to imagine this makes me very happy and consider it a considerable honour to have been included.

You have to wait until the exhibition to see exactly what I proposed but here are a few words from my application:

"It is a sculpture that challenges conventional concepts about site specifics and urban sculpture by concentrating not on the aesthetics and narrative of space but on the people for whom that space was originally designed. Each person's mind is a specific site.

By claiming air rather than ground this work activates an urban spacial area with no built baggage"

Finished..................

The little sculpture that refuses to be finished, only 21cms high, it's been on and off the work bench for a year. It started out as my first study of Iris and has been modified each time I've made another sculpture of her. I've kind of said enough's enough but know that as soon as I start the next she'll beckon again.

It is one of the glories of stone that it allows you to treat it, much like drawing, as a series of adjustable approximations.

Walter and Marion go to Parliament

Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony (well sculptures of them) have moved into their new home, Parliament House, Canberra. Recently purchased they will participate in the Parliament's celebration of Canberra's Centenary.

For those of you who may not know, the American husband and wife architectural team won the international competition to design our capital city in 1911. They are generally regarded as a perfect team, Walter was not much good at drawing his ideas and Marion was brilliant, Walter saw the big broad picture and Marion the detail.

Of all their contributions to our culture I consider their acceptance of the natural Australian landscape the most influential.

Muse abused again?

Who'd be a sculpture eh? Over the last few days Iris, pictured above, has been bashed, drilled, had stainless steel rods inserted in her, she's been glued to a massive granite slab and as if that's not enough, now she's been forced to spend the day with a plastic bag over her head.

Of course its all in a good cause - she'll be better for it - the bag over the head is just part of one of the last processes and is designed to make her look as good as possible. Explanation - many of the air powered tools can spray little droplets of oil on the marble and while you clean off any that you can see pretty much as it happens, there are bound to be some that get missed. So the sculpture gets a high class wash with a special product that can pull stains out of the stone, you paint it on, cover with plastic, leave for a few hours and then wash it again with clean water.