January through to March are hands down my positively, most favourite months in Perth, “West is best,” Straya. The only (which I will admit) negatives of these wonderful months, are that they are accompanied by, what seems to be an eternal, sweltering heat. But you can’t have everything, can you.
Perth city well an truly erupts during these months, with both the eccentric Fringe World Festival and sensational Perth International Art Festival, rolling into town and taking over the city’s Cultural Centre, to deliver to the masses an overwhelming smorgasbord of performances, visual art and what ever else you can imagine from Mermaids, to fire breathing Kangaroos.
This artistic domination is not only confined to Perth’s urban precinct. Our fair coast of Cottesloe also joins in by permitting itself to be adorned with the various works by international and local sculpture artists for ‘Sculpture by the Sea’.
This year was no different. Fringe and Perth International Festival have now been and gone, with the city only now settling from the wonderful chaos that was. I was lucky enough to score work with both, but unfortunately this left me with little to no time to share my experiences.
However, I do have time NOW to share with you my visit to Cottesloe’s ‘Sculpture By The Sea’.
Generally there are always one or two pieces that will receive more attention then others, by visitors. This year’s attention piece was most definitely Western Australian artist Norton Flavel’s, ‘Bulk Carrier’. I, like many antipodean viewers, loved ‘Bulk Carrier.’ But what’s not to love about a giant replica of the infamous ‘Goon Bag,’ which in this case is beached at 4m high and 15m wide. For those readers who have had the misfortune never to be acquainted with a ‘goon bag,’ it is essentially an enclosed plastic bag, which can hold anywhere up to 1.5-4 litres of wine! As I said what’s not to love.
Other standout pieces (for me) were Western Australian artist Tanya Spencer’s work, ‘Survey,’ and other fellow WA artist Annette Thas’s work, ‘Wave 1’.
Internationally I couldn’t go past Alejandro Propato’s work, ‘Permanent Sunset’ which was a dedication to the sunsets experienced at Cottesloe Beach.
An (Unofficial) entry by two shark-cull activists which I did not see, but read about, was submitted earlier in the week. There submission was one of Premier “Cullin” Barnett’s, shark cull hooks, which the activists had removed from is original position and purpose, about 1km off the shore. Thankfully no charges were brought against the activist for their submission; which was sadly reinstalled off shore.
Like all good things, they must eventually, come to an end and today is the last day of ‘Sculpture By The Sea’, so you better be quick if you haven’t already got down and had a look. If you have already been down and had a look let me know your favourite pieces…
Trash And aesthetics 