Best of the beach
The world’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition will celebrate its 15th birthday with half a million people in November.
Sculpture by the Sea is a free public exhibition staged along the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama, featuring works of over 100 local and international artists.
“What we like to do is by having such a broad cross range of sculptures that there’s always something for everyone,” said Mr Handley, Founding Director of Sculpture by the Sea.
Two-time Sculpture by the Sea winner Orest Keywan embraces Mr Handley’s idea. “That’s one of the reasons why I love it. It’s one of those shows where it allows the viewers all the freedom in the world to pick what they like and dislike,” he said.
This year, Keywan will be displaying a steel and polymer sculpture titled “Above the Line”. The name was inspired by a poem he read as a child. “It’s just something that resonated from the way the piece was constructed,” he said.
Italian Australian sculptor Vince Vozzo is a week away from finishing the plinth for his sandstone sculpture titled Last of the Mohicans. Vozzo said the sculpture, which depicts a grand moment in Mohican history, was a form of autobiography of himself as an antithesis of what was contemporary. “It’s a little bit of hopelessly romantic conclusion of my life,” he said.
Australian artist James Rogers, who is also winner of this year’s Helen Lempriere Scholarship, will be displaying a steel sculpture featuring a double figure as a wave titled Hokusai’s Child. “It is in reference to the Japanese woodblock artist’s famous image of The Great Wave,” he said.
Keywan, Vozzo and Rogers have all exhibited with Sculptures by the Sea for over 10 years.
This year’s winner of Sculpture by the Sea will be awarded $65,000.
Mr Handley said the best times to go see the exhibition is between 6 and 7am; 5 and 7.30pm; and twilight mid-week to avoid the weekend crowds.
An indoor exhibition at Mark’s Park,Sculpture Inside, will coincide with Sculpture by the Sea, featuring about 150 sculptures of the exhibiting artists and selected invited artists.
A coffee-table book, Sculpture by the Sea: The First Fifteen Years 1997-2011, will be for sale to celebrate the exhibition’s 15 thanniversary.
Sculpture by the sea will be held from November 3 to November 20.
By Josephine Kwan
