iconophilia nominates The Oldenburg Gate as the first Canberra Gateway Sculpture. This Claes Oldenburg Geometric Mouse (1969/71) suggests the surviving Patriarch of Pop has been watching the growth of monumentalism in Canberra with some dismay, and as an antidote to this tragic tendency he may be willing to offer this work as a suitable Gateway Sculpture for the City of Canberra.
Hypothetically, this work is available at any size, from Gateway scale to the flat-packed Paper version. And the maquette is already here in the NGA! So if the Chief Minister now advocates a direct approach to commissions, Jon, please don’t hold back…
See other examples of the Oldenburg here, here, and here, to appreciate the full potential of this piece. And yes, in Vienna, it is its own Museum.
PS Dear Chief Minister
If you can’t afford sculptures of international standing, your Gateway Sculptures proposal is a terrible idea!
If the $1.2m in the Budget are burning a hole in your pocket, here’s a much better plan. See how popular Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea has become? So emulate it! On the interest on $1.2m you could fund a perpetual Sculpture Festival. Think of the fantastic spatial opportunities presented by the intersection of the Northbourne Avenue and The Pines – you could use these linear parklands as a potential venue. Educate the populace, and let them make their own aesthetic decisions. You never know, they might want to buy their favourites, and come to enjoy the event. As they do in Sydney.
Yours faithfully
Iconophilia@gmail.com
PPS How is it done elsewhere? See St Louis and its list of artists. Be envious.
PPPS Iconophilia is happy to host any other Gateway Sculpture proposals that may come forward from the vast inherited readership who’ve migrated from ArtWranglers…
PPPPS And as a special blog launch offer, the first twenty five subscribers to iconophilia will receive a free signed and numbered reproduction of the Oldenburg proposal drawing above.
10 comments ↓
Heh, it’s the intersection I ride through every day… would love to ride underneath this piece
I think this sculpture would look much more friendly if it was orange …
Make it PINK!!
If it was black – Oldenburg’s (and of course Mickey’s) original colour – you’ve have to construct a U-turn lane at the intersection…
How about you put a range of “gateway” snaps up so the rest of us who live outside the ACT can play photoshop?
One of the real big problems with Gateways is that they never stay in stay in the same place because they are always overtaken by the burbs.
“WRONG WAY GO BACK” at all entry points to ACT has merit, cheap, easily fabricated and can be moved as the city gets bigger.
I’d be happy if they just standardised the spelling of Nunnawal (or however it’s meant to be), as it’s spelled differently at each state entrance point…
i think we should be considering a ” big thing ” along the lines of the big banana. however im not sure if they will go for the “big poo “
I reckon cardog’s on the money here! but it would be great if it was just a very BIG THING and however hard anybody tried nobody could say “its a banana or a merino etc”. It’s impossible I know, but it would be great trying.
Of course there is a fabulous “gateway” sculpture just outside Canberra on the Monaro H’way but the locals called it something like “sheep sling” didn’t they?
Also, the Big Poo has been done — it’s in Robertson, NSW.
One of the finalists in the Major Canberra Artwork comp was a giant marble Walter Burley Griffin, 100 times lifesize, later modified to Marion Mahony and WBG 25 times lifesize but as that project got screwed by red tape and incompetance maybe Canberra deserves THE GIANT RED TAPE.
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