5 November 2009

"Winds of Light" - new Emu Bank art piece

| Gungahlin Al
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Nothing like a new art piece to stimulate some RA discussion.

ACTPLA’s DA notices include one for a new art piece to be installed next to the footbridge at Emu Bank on Lake Ginninderra.

(To my eye) part sundial, part gyroscope, “Winds of Light” is summed up in the DA as:

…an eight metre high monumental scupture in the form of a totem symbolising the original Indigenous people who inhabited this area.
Peter Blizzard describes his sculpture as an ongoing investigation into ideas and as a response to nature, the environment and the landscape.
The circle and square refer to modern architecture and town planning. The various metallic shapes are personal symbols for water, fluidity, hills, valleys, colour, light, time and place
.

Well that about covers everything…

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I-filed said :

http://www.arts.act.gov.au/pages/page149.asp

Ahh, the old “hide it on page 149 trick”, that’s the second time I’ve fallen for that this month.

Geez, it looks like a left-over stage prop from Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s world tour of 1984.

anonymous gungahlian2:42 pm 08 Nov 09

Gungahlin Al said :

anonymous gungahlian said :

Does anyone have any pictures of it?

In the link document AG.

Oh. I see… lol.

Send your feedback on public art to the current arts policy “consultation” the Chief Minister is running. It’s almost impossible to find on the web – and unfortunately search terms don’t find it on the act.gov.au website.

http://www.arts.act.gov.au/pages/page149.asp

Ignore the form, and send your views to the email: artsreview@act.gov.au – it will be treated as a submission.

Or just post here – citizens will I’m sure make sure views on this site are forwarded through.

Gungahlin Al8:21 pm 06 Nov 09

anonymous gungahlian said :

Does anyone have any pictures of it?

In the link document AG.

anonymous gungahlian6:59 pm 06 Nov 09

Does anyone have any pictures of it?

StrangeAttractor11:52 am 06 Nov 09

And I thought with that name it’d be a wind powered lighting sculpture, guess I’m really not in touch with my arty side.

Can the homeless people live in it?

Man With The Plan said :

And how many 100s of 1000s of tax/ratepayer dollars did Stalinhope spend on this piece of scrap metal?

Be fair.

“Highly Polished” piece of scrap metal…

Just as the platypus is a duck designed by committee, this looks like an artwork and an application designed purely to please a committee with funding to throw around.
This is Peter Blizzard’s webpage.

If we’re going to keep the Percent for Art scheme rolling, I’d prefer we set aside the 1% into a funding pool, and acquired on an internationally notable\regionally notable basis, with a purely open process of site nomination & art selection, with rotating membership of the governing panel.
The current “Panel member appointment by Stanhope” process, with art acquisition quotas & annual reporting, where nothing gets announced until after the decisionmaking process is over is turning out a hell of a lot of bad art.
When was the last time we bought something even slightly mainstream?

Is the Arts panel aiming to acquire ‘art that everyone can like’, but isn’t actually liked strongly by anyone?
(And the ArtsACT chronological public art list is way out of date…)

Cranky:
I too had noticed that Stanhope’s Art & Culture programs seem to be run primarily for one man’s benefit, with his ‘the public will benefit too’ justifications being incidental.

Phototext:
Artists seeking grants do talk an entirely different semantic argot.
(The words are English, but the sentences don’t make sense to any non-arts-grants person.)

“Clue me in here, do “arty types” really speak a different English to the rest of us, or am I right in assuming it’s bullsh1t to peddle their wares?”

No more so than the bureaucratic speak that the public service loves so much….. or in fact any type of trade…. plumbers, mechanics, doctors……

That said, I think he is speaking a bit of twaddle and the sculpture doesn’t do much for me.

Is this Peter Blizzard Indigenous?

It occurs to me that Sonic likes his art, likes it paid for by the ratepayers, and likes it local (to him).

Who else gets the keys to the arboretum for personal Sunday walks? Who else gets to decide that the Nolan Exhibition be moved to his personal patch, Civic Square? But there is no way known that Lady Nolan’s wishes that Lanyon be the home of her late husband’s works can be afforded.

The overwhelming majority of Sonic’s ‘art’ is located north of the lake.

I, as a ratepayer, was not put on this earth to help finance one individuals ‘artistic’ bent.

Use the available money to pay for the things that matter!

Man With The Plan6:09 pm 05 Nov 09

And how many 100s of 1000s of tax/ratepayer dollars did Stalinhope spend on this piece of scrap metal?

I’m Curious??????

Does the term personal symbols mean personal to the artist or to the indigenous people?

It does not look or feel very indigenous to me, but then I am not really qualified to make that assessment.

Who has the power to decide whether this “8 meter monumental sculpture” is good art and whether it should grace our foreshore?

Pommy bastard4:46 pm 05 Nov 09

Clue me in here, do “arty types” really speak a different English to the rest of us, or am I right in assuming it’s bullsh1t to peddle their wares?

As for this “sculpture” the best I can say of it, is “it’s inoffensive”. (Unless you are an indigenous person.)

a totem symbolising the original Indigenous people who inhabited this area

pffft. looks more like the lovechild of an icecream scoop and a potato peeler.

It’s going to fit right in with the discarded shopping trolleys in the water there.

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