The anti-Christo

Iconophilia invites you to make up your own minds which version of this Rick Amor sculpture on Childers St and University Avenue you prefer. Vote Christo or anti-Christo? It’s the latest instance of the ACT Government’s iconopathic spree on public art. Apparently we specialise in minor works by minor artists – Rick Amor was unknown to the world of three dimensional art until his unhappy black dog was unleashed on the unsuspecting art world as a (tongue-in-cheek, surely) farewell gift to the last NGA Director Brian Kennedy. And who decided this glowering feetless Relic would be a great symbol for the entryway to the Australian National University? Is the CM having a lend of the VC?

Or it it the Family Law Court it’s referencing? Abandon hope all ye who enter here… It seems the ACT Government’s public art fashion sense has shifted to beaky, lumpy, semi-figurative bronzes which evoke British art from the 1950s. And good lord! It (presumably another copy) won the McLelland Award in 2007!

And it’s been a sculpture ‘launch” a week for the Chief Minister’s publicity machine recently. Iconophilia bets this one is destined to sink without a ripple in the dark waters of art history… And let’s hope there’s an exit clause…