Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
By Julianna Overett
It surely isn’t super man. If you asked bird you would be correct. Indeed soaring 11 metres high at the junction of Yarra Glen is a sculpture titled Dinornis Maximous. Sorry ladies, you will not find a gladiator or superman like the name might suggest. Rather you will find a large metal wind activated sculpture that is intended to refer to an ancient flightless bird.
So what exactly is it doing in Canberra in the year 2008?
Well it was bought using large amounts of your taxes to beautify the city. Just how much you might ask…Well does it matter look at it, its fine art! Just what the community needs. Oh so it was bought from a local artist then? Locals? No mostly Sydney Artists. In order to reach a “height of greatness” – Jon Stanhope, we need art. So we thought a small cost of $2.5 million (he says under his breath hoping we are too dumb to see) on public art would “express who we are and how we live.” – Jon Stanhope. Ah…I see. So how exactly do the recent artworks express Canberra…?
Well they don’t. They don’t reflect Canberra or the people that live in Canberra. Oh and further more, they are not accessible to the public who they are intended for.
It seems that Canberra is trying to mirror other major cities like Sydney, which is often mistaken to be the Capital of Australia. So perhaps the Stanhope Government thinks that by placing these new and costly artworks around the capital, visitors might get confused and think they’re in Sydney.
An especially controversial piece was purchased and placed on the side of the Gungahlin Drive Extension. This new sculpture, titled Rhizome, is making some drivers a bit worried. “Is that, like, an explosion? Didn’t they finish the road before they opened it? Is it safe to pass?” – Emma Macdonald. It is easy to see the comparison to a “bombed railway track or something Edward Scissor hands may have come up with had he been commissioned to give some steel pylons a haircut.” – Emma Macdonald.
Perhaps the fact that Sydney based artist Richard Goodwin, designed it as an interpretation of Australian indigenous grasses that makes it okay. What makes it not okay is that they haven’t even completed the road that it’s placed on. “We’ve always said we’re not apposed to all public art, but we are opposed to spending a lot of money on public art on the side of the roads instead of actually finishing those roads.” – Zed Seselja, Liberal Party. Surely that money could be spent on something that meets the real needs of the community, including “education, health, planning, and housing affordability”- Clinton White, Liberal Candidate.
A few artworks are not going to start drawing in new residents. Especially if housing prices are through the roof, and the roads that lead to them are incomplete. Priorities people!
Yes Canberra needs sprucing up, but perhaps the government needs to start looking closer to home and stop comparing themselves to other cities. It’s like comparing yourself to an airbrushed image in a magazine. It is not going to happen!
There are plenty of local artists who are surely dying to have their stamp on the community, and gain some recognition. There is no point in advertising Canberra as a community worth moving to if everything used to beautify the capital is from another city. Hopefully the commissioning of a new artwork due for Canberra’s centenary in 2013 will “reflect all that is the ‘spirit of Canberra’”. – Jon Stanhope, Labor Party.
