…is that it’s very sticky. Once it’s there it has to stay there. So what’s the issue for the citizens of Canberra in relation to this next round of highway artefacts? Simple. That whoever makes the choice knows something about art. NOT the bunch of poets and architects who’ve exercised their taste so far. What are we to do? Let’s compose some letters to the CM which might have some useful political effect – so that we can all enjoy the experience of driving home… And then let’s hope we get something that a Jeffrey Smart wants to paint!

Here’s the letter I’m going to write – I encourage readers to do the same… (If you do, feel free to post it in comments)

The Hon. Jon Stanhope, MLA.

Chief Minister, Legislative Assembly, Canberra, ACT

stanhope@act.gov.au

Dear Mr Stanhope

I am writing in regard to your announcement in the Canberra Times (16th May, 2009) in relation to the decision to commission three gateway sculptures for the highways into Canberra.

The decisions your Government will make will affect the image of Canberra in perpetuity. It follows that the aesthetic decisions we make must stand the test of time, and be the result of the highest level of expert decision-making that it is possible to engage. These sculptures will become the badge by which Canberra is recognised. See, for instance, The Melbourne Gateway. I would like to make the following three observations which may assist you in making these crucial decisions.

1. I do not believe that those entrusted with the recent round of decision-making in relation to public art commissions have the appropriate background or expertise to make these crucial decisions.

2. I suggest you appoint an advisory committee of (say) three persons which draws on the significant pool of visual arts expertise present in Canberra and interstate. Curators with the specific expertise and a track record in the area of sculpture could be drawn, for instance, from the NGA, CMAG, or the AGNSW. These should be people with a wide knowledge of public art elsewhere in Australia and internationally.

3. You are correct in suggesting that the process of commissioning a work of art does not best proceed by applying the same criteria and processes as for (say) a rest stop, or a playground. Works of art, or proposals for the same, should proceed by invitation, adequate payment for concept drawings, and a commissioning process which does not cripple the project by including the costs of landscaping and other amenities, and the costs dealing with the multiple government agencies which result from the commissioning process.

I wish you well in arriving at an appropriate process, and an outcome of which we can all be proud.

Your sincerely

My name

David Pope in Wednesday’s CT seems to have got the picture. There was potentially another cartoon in this story – the one where you couldn’t see the earless Chief Minister for the smoke from the burning Centenary Monument. A bit like short-listed sculptor Clive Murray-White’s early work, something a politician would understand. But Pope has caught the real issue here: canning the Monument was an excuse to remove the 1% policy to satisfy the interests of developers. Read more…

This is a work by Subodh Gupta, Nature Morte/Bose Pacia in Basel, where this summer the Messeplatz, sited directly in front of the buildings hosting the 40th edition of Art Basel, will once again become a stage for art projects in the public space. Eight works by internationally renowned artists Valentin Carron, General Idea, Mark Handforth, Jeppe Hein, Gabriel Kuri, Mathieu Mercier, John McCracken and Ken Price will be installed. Of course the advantage is that a project like this turns the city into a gallery: as we’ve argued before, temporary public art is a lot easier to live with…

Reported tonight on the ABC, the overall budget for public art will also be capped at $1.2m, but you’ll have to wait until someone’s back at work on Tuesday to read the details in a press release. Or rather, that’s where it should be: this is the original release I found when I resorted to Google…

ArtWranglers has long assumed the monument was a dead duck, in a city full of the little blighters. And so we can confirm – ArtWranglers’ nomination in August 2008 for a Readymade Monument (above) which has already been in place for 20 months – is hereby the frontrunner for Heritage Listing. Meanwhile, what opportunities are being lost? Surely all it needs is confidence, good advice, and some good stories to go with it to achieve some really Inspirational Objects.

looms over Grange House and Park in downtown Toronto. The break-out staircase, nicknamed “the barnacle”, is on the back wall of the new galleries of the Frank Gehry (re)designed Art Gallery of Ontario. Clearly it was not enough for FG to simply clad the “back” of the building in titanium or stainless steel. No matter how well it might frame the original 1816 building, it seems that even the back wall also has to say something about the interior life of the building. And the view is apparently quite special! We like it just as much as the other more spectacular details of the front and interior of the AGO we’ve posted previously. Add Gehry or AGO to the search box and you’ll see them all. Thanks to Max for the image and info… (For lots more, go to Craig James Whites’ photostream on Flickr).

Yuri Wiedenhofer, the inspired/inspiring ceramic artist who lives on a mountain behind Tanja, the man who milks death adders for a living, ran into some more mundane challenges when he tried to build his fire sculpture on the beach at Bermagui. This was to be the culmination of Sculpture on the Edge, but the censorious local intelligentsia got in the way. It was planned to be a much more ambitious affair, with bottles, sea grass, and offal, but the locals had apparently had enough of high culture for one week, and so his materials were edited during the night. Even so, the show went on, and thanks to Chris Polglase for the pics…

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