When a journalist asks you to explain why sculpture festivals like Sculpture on the Edge are worthwhile, you’re put on the spot. Sculpture, like any of the three dimensional media, are harder to appreciate than the pictorial arts. They’re lumpy, and big, and heavy, and you need plinths or hidden bases to put them on. So you need to make special efforts to organise for them to be seen. Otherwise you would never get an idea what’s going on, because you only ever see them one at a time, like bits of jewelery, as decor in our social spaces. Think of the uproar when a sculpture gets plonked beside a freeway…

ArtWranglers has to admit our bias. Plonk sculpture rarely does anything for us. So most of the work in this exhibition would look better in a gallery than on the green lawns of the headland. And so despite its drama and beauty, the Endeavour Point Headland is rarely used by the Edge sculptors as anything other than an open air gallery. Nothing this year matches the imaginative excitement of last year’s Hanna Hoyne’s Soulsearchanaut tethered between the two largest Norfolk Island pines. We admit we have a preference for sculpture which engages with its surroundings, or which challenges our expectations of what a sculpture can be. Perfection within tradition has to be exceptional in some other way to break out of its comfort zone. Edge will never revive the tradition of the Mildura Sculpture Triennal of the 60s and 70s, where confrontation and engagement with the environment became the norm. Edge now performs a different role.

So a sculpturefest like this is worth the special efforts it takes to make it happen. Why? If you’re a painter, it happens all the time. Survey shows, curated shows, competitions and non-juried exhibitions make up the majority of our gallery experiences. Think how rarely you see more than a couple of sculptures at a time. So this kind of event is worthwhile on three different axes. A sculptural metaphor. One is that we get to see what sculptors are up to, and compare the aesthetic experiences they have to offer, side by side, en masse. The second axis, heading in a different direction, is the democratic opportunity it affords to people who are not professional artists, who don’t have the advantages of a University training  – like the contingent of ten who came this year from the ANU School of Art. And the third axis is that this is art in the public domain, in main street, and so everyone gets to have an opinion. The first gives us an opportunity for new challenges, experiences and insights. The second has proven to be a surprising launch pad for people who never imagined their art might be appreciated, that making art could be so rewarding. The third is equally valuable. Sculpture need not be a creature of the elites, the ivory towers, or the white cubes of the museums. This kind of art can be the kind of social glue that affirms the way we value social spaces and social life. Outsiders and Insiders rub up against each other, and great things happen as a consequence. Sometimes the Outsiders become the Insiders, and previously unknown local artists become celebrities. As it should be. Let’s have a look at some examples we haven’t shown in our earlier post. Here’s local artist Frank Maconochie fighting off the paparazzi as he tries to demonstrate his Three Stools or a Lamp…

And here’s Dan Lorrimer’s ode to Wilbur and Orville (on the beach, where a different kind of interactivity can happen):

And despite its random plonkiness, here’s Randall Sinnamon’s Boar, which had a surprising subtlety and presence…

So you have to congratulate Jan Ireland for her determination and commitment to have pulled it off again, against all odds. We heard nothing but praise for the many successes of this event. The enthusiasm of the artists is infectious. Here’s the gaggle outside a place of High Gastronomic Culture.

And here’s Jan with Amanda Stuart’s Alpha Myths.

For more pics go to glasscemtralcanberra