On Tuesday 12th March, the Year 11 Design and Years 11 and 12 Visual Art students visited the 15th Annual Sculptures by the Sea exhibition. The event is open from 1st to the 18th March and is well worth a visit, if you have not already been.
Each year, we see Cottesloe beach transformed into a large-scale outdoor exhibition space for all to enjoy. This is a popular event and there were many school groups, as well as members of the public in attendance on Tuesday. Our students demonstrated great patience when trying to photograph art work with so many visitors wanting to interact with the pieces.
The wide variety of sculpture work on display this year was fantastic. Local, interstate and international artists showcased their remarkable works, transforming the coastline.
We all had our favourite sculptures, but one of the talking points was the Thoughts of Pinocchio sculpture by South Korean artist Bongsoo Kim. In his artist statement, he describes how he felt he had hidden his natural purity, becoming selfish and greedy in life. In doing so, the artist believed that he had lost both himself and his time. The message he was delivering through the sculpture was that in our competitive society many people cheat – seeking money and power – or mask themselves with lies.
Another popular sculpture was Ipomoea. This was a kinetic piece designed by Phil Price who is an artist from New Zealand. It was almost hypnotic to watch the gigantic green leaf gently moving and rotating in the breeze.
There were so many great sculptures we loved and could picture in our own School grounds! Alas, they are very expensive, but we are inspired to create sculpture for our School environment and will be generating some ideas of what is possible within our limited resources.
We were sad to hear that this may be the last Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, as there is currently no major sponsor to support the event for 2020. Fingers crossed that a sponsor will come forward in the coming months.
Written by Mrs Andrea West & Mrs Jacky Harrison