Front Cover Loretta Quinn Digital collage of Beyond the Ocean Burke and Wills by of Existence, 1993 Charles Summers bronze on granite and Vault by Ron plinth Robertson–Swann For the first time a selection of 20th century. Relevant books, maquettes and models of sculptures in catalogues, newspaper articles and central Melbourne, from the collection statements by the artists on display of the City of Melbourne, plus works give added information and touch on sourced from private collections and some of the controversies. various institutions, are on display in The exhibition catalogue contains a the City Gallery. The exhibits make simple map as a guide for those who, clear the emphasis on monuments and having seen the artist’s drawings or memorials during the 19th and early maquettes, wish to see the final work 20th centuries and the emergence of in situ. abstract public sculpture in the late Deborah Halpern Angel, 1987-89 SCULPTURE IN THE CITY steel armature, painted ceramic tiles KEN SCARLETT on ferro-cement In the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria This exhibition of maquettes, models The sculptor Charles Summers rose and artist’s drawings acts as a potted to the occasion with a larger than life- history of public sculpture in the sized depiction of Burke and Wills central area of Melbourne. It enables which, astonishingly, he cast himself the visitor to view the sculptor’s initial in a foundry he built at the top of ideas and compare with the finished Collins Street. The sculptor exhibited sculpture, particularly if they sally his knowledge of classical sculpture, forth, map in hand to inspect the work for the seated figure of Wills has in situ. The time range is from 1860 to links with Michelangelo’s Giuliano De the present, from Burke and Wills to Medici and the noble head of Burke has Vault and on to the present. a resemblance to the bearded Moses. The monument was commissioned in Looking back 150 years we have December1863 and unveiled in 1865 in reassessed the Burke and Wills 1860 the presence of an estimated 10,000 expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf people. of Carpentaria. There is no doubting their fortitude and bravery, but their While Burke and Wills was certainly unwillingness to relate to the local Melbourne’s first public monument*, Indigenous people meant that Burke from the end of the 19th century and Wills died of starvation in an the city’s streets and parks became environment that provided adequate thickly populated with a plethora food for the Aborigines. John King of bronze statues of civic leaders, was accepted by the Yandruwandha politicians, military personnel, kings people, lived with them and survived. and queens. Statues of the great public The people of Melbourne in the 1860s, benefactor, Sir Redmond Barry and of however, viewed the expedition quite Francis Ormond, the founder of the differently: they saw the explorers as Workingmen’s College (now elevated national heroes whose exploits and to the Royal Melbourne Institute of tragic death should be remembered Technology University) were both with a public monument. unveiled in 1887. But the public were as Simon Perry James White Public Purse, 1994 Queen Victoria red granite, Memorial, 1904-07 stainless steel Carrara marble, granite keen to see cast in bronze a figure who the State Library of Victoria and instated outside ACCA (Australian had never visited Australian shores: the the series of popular personalities Centre for Contemporary Art) leader of Britain’s expansionist designs at Docklands, including Dame Edna The furore over this abstract sculpture on the Sudan in Africa, General Gordon, Everage, all by Peter Corlett, suggest made architects, developers and was placed on a remarkably tall plinth that there is still a lingering demand landscape architects very wary in 1889. The degree of popular public for physical representation. No longer and probably severely limited the support for monuments and memorials linking back to classical sculpture, commissioning of public sculpture in can be judged by the attendance of the however, Corlett’s figures, instead, Melbourne for several years. Slowly, vast crowd at the unveiling of Burke have a heightened realism and a direct, but inevitably, however, attitudes were and Wills and by the fact that 100,000 popular appeal. changing and by the late 1980s sculptors citizens subscribed towards the cost of such as Akio Makigawa, Anthony the General Gordon Memorial – it was, Pryor and Peter Corlett were installing in fact, over subscribed. works in relation to office blocks and The Age newspaper instituted a new apartments. By the time of the popular one-shilling subscription fund Southbank development on the southern after the death of Queen Victoria, side of the Yarra, begun in 1982 and which led to a commission for James completed in 1993, the policy of 1% for White. One might have thought that art had been accepted. In a nice reversal this sentiment for memorials would of earlier attitudes, it was the City of fade with the death of Queen Victoria, Melbourne that led a revival of public whose elaborate and extravagant sculpture within the central business monument was unveiled in 1907, but A dramatic change occurred in 1980 was taken up by the press. Commonly district with the Swanston Walk project. nothing could be further from the when Ron Robertson-Swann’s Vault called the Yellow Peril, critics linked A series of commissions were instituted, truth. In the 1920s and 30s there were was unveiled on the newly completed racial prejudice and anti-communist including such innovative works as a series of commissions – King Edward City Square designed by Denton Corker attitudes as a means of belittling the Architectural Fragment, 1992, by Petrus V11, 1920, the explorer Matthew Marshall. The architects had seen work. In spite of strong protests, the Spronk or Simon Perry’s light-hearted Flinders in 1923, the preacher, John the sculpture as a focal point on the sculpture was ignominiously banished to Public Purse, 1994. While there were Wesley, 1935 - while recent statues square, but ill-informed councillors a seldom-frequented patch of parkland some admirable sculptures, the standard of Governor La Trobe, placed outside began a campaign of vilification, which beside the Yarra and only recently re- varied, including works such as Three Ron Robertson- Swann Vault, 1978-80 painted steel Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Our growing maturity and Lunch: Batman, Swanston and Hoddle, sophistication, nevertheless, was which has become all-too popular as a clearly illustrated when Melbourne’s place for tourists to be photographed. first Asian-born Lord Mayor John So, spoke at the ‘unveiling’ of Vault, By the time of the huge Docklands moved to its third location in 2002, development, which occurred a few on the site beside ACCA. No longer years later, it was assumed that public ridiculed it was now ‘welcomed like an sculpture was old and respected an integral part IT was THE City friend into a new of the planning; of MELboURNE that home. Times have Docklands LEd A REvIvAL of PUbLIC changed’ said the probably has more Lord Mayor. contemporary SCULPTURE wITHIN sculpture per THE CENTRAL business This evolution building than any district wITH THE of public and where else in SwanstoN Walk PRoject. official attitudes Australia. was further to create Birrarung Wilam, the park’s the present, between the Indigenous demonstrated complex major art work: patterns that peoples and those of us who arrived Melbourne has become all the richer with with the establishment of Birrarung may have been drawn in the earth are much more recently. the placing of public sculpture within Mar beside the Yarra. Remembering now translated into a pattern that our every-day environment: the public Times have indeed changed. that the land of the Wurundjeri snakes across the riverside path, have grown to accept contemporary and Boonwerrung peoples was wooden shields are displayed in bronze Ken Scarlett sculpture, to accept the challenges appropriated to build the city of and hand-held message sticks appear Curator of often extremely diverse styles of Melbourne, it was symbolic that as towering wooden posts, a group expression. While we can justifiably claim the City Council established this of engraved boulders provide visual to be the cultural capital of Australia, we new parkland to commemorate and and cultural ballast and stories are *Charles Summers also did the larger than haven’t recently managed to attract a life figure in the River God Fountain, now in celebrate their connection to the told through touch-activated audio crowd of 10,000 to an unveiling as the the Fitzroy Gardens, which he produced in land. Vicki Couzens, Lee Darroch and panels. Birrarung Wilam has become Burke and Wills Monument did in 1865. association with Clement Hodgkinson in 1862. Treahna Hamm were commissioned a symbolic link between the past and 06 E CITY of MELboURNE SCULPTURE wALK Birrarung Marr The sculptures are listed alphabetically, starting with works south of the Yarra River and going north along Swanston Street and D returning via Elizabeth Street. See list on pages 12 & 13 for artwork details. RUSSELL ST A VICTORIA ST Town Hall H B START P O N J I G F C OR No1 Tram to SWANSTON ST Vault at ACCA M L K T ELIZABETH ST River Yarra Q U R Victoria Market S QUEEN ST FLINDERS ST DUDLEY ST FRANKLIN ST A BECKETT ST ST LATROBE ST LONSDALE LT ST LONSDALE BOURKE ST LT BOURKE ST COLLINS ST LT COLLINS ST FLINDERS LN SCULPTURES oN THE CITY of MELboURNE SCULPTURE wALK All sculptures are in the City D. Vicki Couzens, Lee Darroch H. Pamela Irving L.