The six works you shouldn’t miss at Sculpture by the Sea

By John McDonald

Highlights from Sculpture by the Sea include Joel Adler’s Lens (main), Nikita Zigura’s Global Warming (top left) and Just a Drop in the Ocean by Marina DeBris (bottom left).Credit:Flavio Brancaleone, Janie Barrett

There may be no better indicator that Sydney has shaken off its COVID-19 anxieties than a new instalment of Sculpture by the Sea. This wildly popular event went missing during the pandemic but is set for a triumphant return, as crowds gather on the foreshores between Bondi and Tamarama to pick up where they left off in 2019.

In previous years the exhibition has routinely attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors – the kind of numbers that put most museum blockbusters to shame. The chance to see sculptures in a spectacular natural setting has been a huge drawcard, right from the show’s inception in 1997 when it was a single-day event. Along with sculptor Ron Robertson-Swann, I had the job of selecting work for that first Sculpture by the Sea, and my most distinct memory is of our amazement at the sheer number of entries.

The received wisdom at that point in history was that sculpture was a rarefied activity, made by a few diehard artists, and appreciated by an even smaller hardcore of collectors. Large-scale work was difficult to make, difficult to transport, and difficult to sell. All the best-known Australian sculptors had a storage problem, as masterpieces piled up around them.

It’s not always the largest works that stand out … People will still be talking about an ingenious piece long after they’ve forgotten a big one.

Sculpture by the Sea changed everything. Suddenly, it seemed there was a large, enthusiastic audience for sculpture that had never previously revealed itself. Even more surprising was the unsuspected quantity of people making sculptures who were eager for an opportunity to exhibit their work. This was just as big a surprise for organiser David Handley, who came up with the original concept for the show. In 1997, he couldn’t have known that his bright idea would enable him to give up the legal profession and become a full-time art entrepreneur.

The 2022 exhibition is the 24th time the show has appeared at Bondi, but there have been more than 50 versions – at Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Aarhus in Denmark, and various one-offs. In May, a permanent Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail was launched in the towns of Adelong, Batlow, Tumbarumba, and Tooma.

As befits an event in a city obsessed with real estate, the secret of Sculpture by the Sea’s initial success was location, location, location. The rugged coastline and sweeping views of the ocean set sculptors a serious challenge, asking them to make a work that can hold its own against Mother Nature. With every year, it’s been easy to spot the pieces that take up that challenge and those that are defeated. It’s not always the largest works that stand out, although scale is often crucial. The qualities that make for success include originality, wit and placement. People will still be talking about an ingenious piece long after they’ve forgotten a big one.

The democratic variety of the show is one of its greatest strengths and a constant source of criticism. The gimmicks and gags that delight the public tend to be greeted with contempt by the cognoscenti who complain every year that the selection is a circus. A more realistic assessment might be that a few vulgar and gimmicky pieces do not detract from those works of greater aesthetic ambition found in every iteration of Sculpture by the Sea. Major artists continue to enter, year after year, knowing they’ll never find a better showcase.

Over the years, Sculpture by the Sea’s other notable success has been to bring rain, sometimes of Biblical proportions. The success of this return exhibition will depend partly on people’s willingness to join a crowd again, and partly on the weather. Nevertheless, one should anticipate a big turnout, as Sydney has a special fondness for large-scale outdoor events. Don’t even try to park!

In this brief overview, from a field of 108, I’ll discuss six of the sculptures I’m most excited to see. If you need further information, this year for the first time there’s a very informative app. Hopefully, visitors will look up from their phones occasionally and take a quick glance at the art.

Marina DeBris, Just a Drop in the Ocean

Marina Debris’ sculpture Just a Drop in the Ocean.Credit:Janie Barrett

In 2017, Marina DeBris (“Is that her real name?” you ask) won the Allen’s People’s Choice Prize, with her Inconvenience Store, a makeshift shop filled with thousands of pieces of junk that had been washed up on the shore. What was most impressive was the thoroughness with which the artist catalogued and arranged her old cigarette butts and broken sunglasses, making them look weirdly desirable and collectable. Just a Drop in the Ocean revisits the ecological theme, crafting an oversized drop of water from rubbish scavenged from Sydney’s beaches. Once again, there’s a gaudy appeal in the sight of so many brightly coloured fragments melded into a three-metre-high droplet, framed by the deep blue sea. It’s only when we reflect that the ocean is packed with millions of tonnes of this stuff that the piece takes on a more sinister meaning.

Sally Kidall, Bunker Down: Survival of the Fittest

Sally Kiddall’s Bunker Down: Survival of the Fittest.Credit:Janie Barrett

Sally Kidall’s Bunker Down has both actual and virtual components. What we see, tucked into a bank not far from Bondi Beach, is a compact, solid-looking edifice with a small door. The solidity is an illusion, as the piece is made from plywood. We are asked to imagine this as the entrance to a rather luxurious bunker, where one might hide away from nuclear war, the effects of global warming, or a violent uprising. Viewers can “enter” the bunker by scanning a QR code that shows us what is supposedly beneath our feet. The work is a super fiction that addresses the growing sense of fatalism and paranoia many people feel when they consider the state of the planet today. If you’re wealthy enough, you might consider retreating to a well-appointed hole in the ground, like an affluent mole.

Koichi Ishino, Wind Stone – Threshold of Consciousness

Koichi Ishino’s Wind Stone – Threshold of Consciousness.Credit:Janie Barrett

One of the consistently strong features of Sculpture by the Sea has been the annual participation of so many excellent Japanese sculptors. Stone-carver Keizo Ushio has been represented in every Bondi show since 1999. Others, such as Koichi Ishino, enjoyed Australia so much, they have come to live here. But a change of country has not changed the perfectionism so characteristic of the Japanese. Showing breathtaking skill with stainless steel and polished granite, Ishino has crafted a shiny, reflective surface that allows the sculpture to blend in with its surroundings, even though it is materially a very different proposition. According to the artist, Wind Stone is an abstraction – a three-dimensional realisation of what it feels like when “drifting idly between consciousness and unconsciousness”.

Joel Adler, Lens

Joel Adler’s sculpture Lens.Credit:Janie Barrett

Joel Adler stole the show in 2019, with a work called Viewfinder, which allowed viewers to look at the sea through a big, artfully constructed drainpipe that mimicked a camera obscura. This year he is back, with another eye-catching optical device masquerading as a sculpture. Adler has been given the much-coveted space in front of Marks Park, where a circle of stone looms over the ocean. Into this circle, he has placed a stainless-steel sphere that acts as a large, curved mirror, not unlike the mirrored balls one might find in a print by M.C. Escher. The changing light and atmospheric conditions are captured on this sphere, which simultaneously disrupts and continues the view of the horizon. Expect to find the work surrounded by a crowd of rabid selfie-takers.

James Rogers, Out of the Blue

James Rogers’ sculpture Out of the Blue.

Two years ago, James Rogers was given a survey at the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra that revealed a quality and consistency which had never been obvious until a large sample of his work was gathered in one place. Since then, I’ve paid closer attention to his sculptures, and, with Rhonda Davis, gave one of them the major prize at this year’s Sculpture in the Vineyards, in Wollombi. Out of the Blue is typical of Rogers’s recent work. It features slabs of painted steel that curl, loop and fall like bark peeling from a tree. Although essentially abstract, the piece is suggestive of the natural world, particularly the bush, where the artist makes his home. There are many established sculptors in this show who work in steel, but I’ve selected Rogers to stand for all of them. The big mistake many people make is to assume that ‘all metal sculpture is the same,’ when even a cursory glance will reveal the individuality in these works.

Nikita Zigura, Global Warming

Ukrainian artist Nikita Zigura’s artwork Global Warming.Credit:Janie Barrett

Finally, one for Ukraine. When her country is being attacked by barbaric Russian forces, it’s almost touching that Nikita Zigura has made a work about climate change, in the form of two giant, pale cherries cast from aluminium and stainless steel. Presumably the sculpture preceded the invasion, as there’s probably not much studio time available nowadays. One of four Ukrainian artists invited to take part in this year’s exhibition, Zigura’s work has little in common with that of Oleksii Zolotariov, Dmitriy Grek and Egor Zigura. Their participation serves as a reminder that while we’re enjoying the views from Bondi Heads, we might spare a thought for those who spend their days looking at scenes of devastation, fighting for life and land.

Sculpture by the Sea runs from Bondi to Tamarama Beach until November 7.

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