Public art icons from around the globe
Steeped in anti-elitism, Australians are suspicious about arty stuff. Why Puccini when Freemantle footballer Matthew Pavlich provides The Pav’s pirouette, bringing to life a purple sea of 40,000?
Aussies are unhappy about taxpayers’ cash doing anything but providing chalkies, nurses, coppers and the gear to turn back those pesky boats.
But, an Australian might also say, for the memories of a lifetime let’s give our money to Parisians or New Yorkers. Snap. Newlyweds at the Eiffel Tower. Sacre bleu! Snap. Uncle Bob at Liberty. Big, ain’t she?
The Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty are emblematic of public art. Their images define two of the world’s greatest cities, fine examples of how art and design transcend the physical and can unify a populace.
There’s no doubt public art adds to a community’s sense of well-being. Dollars and cents cannot measure value and benefit. What price Paris as the epicentre of the world’s fantasy honeymoons?
Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, patron of the Perth Public Art Foundation, has placed such a work on the agenda for WA’s bicentenary. Rather than belittle the idea, we owe it to ourselves and to those who follow us to embrace it. We’re mature enough and we’re sophisticated enough.
And surely we’ve outgrown the ridiculous cultural cringe that’s plagued WA for generations. Our iron ore is world class. So too nearly everything else in WA – gas, wine, literature and science. Why not our public art?
Let us argue over what this iconic work of art should be, what it should say about us, and what it might do for us. But let us not disagree on the need for it.
Of course, teeth will gnash. The Bicentenary Public Art Project will be hugely debated. It’ll fill thousands of hours of talkback radio and TV news, hectares of newsprint and gazillions of online bytes.
Only the technology through which the controversy rages will be new. In 19th Century Paris, famous authors and artists bitterly opposed the Eiffel Tower. Ditto the Statue of Liberty. It took the efforts of a newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer (yes, he of That Prize) to galvanize New York’s citizens to finish it 11 years after conception.
So, if you’d want three opinions about the WA Bicentenary Public Art Project, you’d only need ask two people! The Perth Public Art Foundation wants a well-organized international competition to help select an iconic work of public art to be built by 2029. We’d like to see WA’s families participate in what should be a wonderful, energizing discussion and decision.
We’d like to see our mature corporates and our philanthropic leaders take charge of sourcing the cash. We’d like to see government help by easing red tape, offering organizational support, money too if it can be afforded, but most importantly to adopt and promote the cause. With a brilliant piece of public art as our frontispiece, Perth can take its place beside the world’s great cities. We most certainly have the imagination. All we need is the determination.
