Public Art

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MRA is working in partnership with the Department of Culture and the Arts in presenting a temporary and ephemeral art program in the Cultural Centre that is designed to surprise, delight, challenge and inspire. A number of artists have been invited to develop short term artworks, installations and performances to engage with the public and reinterpret the public domain. Download the Art Catalogue.

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View the public art pieces you can always find in the PCC

3D Chalk Art

Produced by the Art Gallery of WA

Artist:Jenny McCracken Year:2010 More Info:http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/ Appeared in:01/12/2010 to 31/12/2010

A luminary series of records played in parallel

A newly commissioned projection work created by West Australian artists Sohan Ariel Hayes and Benjamin Forster during an enriching four-week residency in the State Records Office of Western Australia.

Passers-by will experience thousands of unique and thought provoking records abruptly unfolding from the architectural facades of the Perth Cultural Centre this April and May.

This ‘expanded cinema’ work is constructed utilising a diverse series of documents sourced from the State Records Office, on a range of subjects from the political, through the bizarre, to the everyday. Examining the archives both aleatorically and through constructed narratives, this new work questions how WA citizens understand themselves and their State in the light of history.

Artist:Sohan Ariel Hayes & Benjamin Forster Year:2012 Appeared in:26/04/2012 to 14/05/2012

Appearing Rooms at the Perth International Arts Festival

Appearing Rooms water walls at the Perth International Arts Festival

Appearing Rooms

Produced by Perth International Arts Festival and PICA

Artist:Jeppe Hein Year:2010 More Info:http://perthfestival.com.au/ Appeared in:01/01/2010 to 31/12/2010

Between 1979-1980 is made from large geometric shapes, playing with balance and creating a sense of lightness. It is located in the Urban Orchard.

Between 1979 - 1980

Clement Meadmore is an internationally renowned sculptor who was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1929. He lived and worked predominately in America, where he died in 2005.

Between 1979-1980 is one of his many public artworks made from large geometric shapes, that play with balance and create a sense of lightness to the heavy steel forms. His sculpture in the Cultural Centre is made from Corten steel which has a unique rusting process.

Artist:Clement Meadmore Year:1981 More Info:http://www.meadmore.com/ See it:Always

Bomb da Site, by Matthew Hunt, public art installation in the Perth Cultural Centre

Bomb da Site

Bomb da Site involves the temporary installation of large scale black and white text in various locations in the Perth Cultural Centre. Regular visitors will experience the project evolving as different words and phrases appear in different locations over the two month project.

Artist’s statement:

“As the name implies the Cultural Centre is deemed to be the epitome of Western Australian culture. It is within this framework – the notion of Centre, of Excellence, of Knowledge, of Collection, of Expertise – that my work will couch its critique. It is natural to do so – this is the way culture changes and how it informs who we are.

My work introduces texts into the site, these texts are in essence ambiguous due to the open-ended nature of the short phrases or word combinations. I avoid using texts in a didactic manner as I aim to engage people in a way that validates their own life experiences. The texts can seem incongruous but they act to build upon each other, teasing the viewer into thinking about possible contexts to where they are and what we are both in a contemporary sense and a historical sense.” Matthew Hunt

Artist:Matthew Hunt Year:2011 Appeared in:08/03/2011 to 06/05/2011

Floral artists used thousands of flowers and plants to create their own response to a particular work from the State Art Collection

Caged art in bloom installation in the Perth Cultural Centre

Clement Meadmore sculpture with City in Bloom installation by Monique Wajon

Art in Bloom installation by Nien Schwarz outside the State Library of WA

City in Bloom

Image 1: The Lotus Pond by Sally Stewart is an interactive work that incorporates a series of floating, vinyl lotus flowers. Visitors were encouraged to gently touch or spin the lotus flowers.

Image 2: Caged floral installation

Image 3,4,5: Installation by Monique Wajon

Image 6: Installation by Nien Schwarz

Produced by City of Perth in association with the Art Gallery of WA Art in Bloom Exhibition.

Artist:Various Year:2010 More Info:http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/ Appeared in:01/12/2010 to 16/12/2010

Bennett Miller used Dachshunds in creating this temporary installation for PICA

Dachshund UN

Produced by PICA

Artist:Bennett Miller Year:2010 Appeared in:03/08/2010 to 31/03/2010

Der Rufer represents a man who called across a river to attract the ferryman on the other side.

Der Rufer (The Caller)

Gerhard Marcks is a German artist who was a founding teacher of the famous Bauhaus art and design school. Born in 1889, he died in 1981.

Der Rufer is believed to have been inspired when the artist was standing beside a man who called across a river to attract the ferryman on the other side. The sculpture in the Cultural Centre is one of a number produced by the artist, including one erected in Berlin in 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, where The Caller is said to be calling ‘peace’.

Artist:Gerhard Marcks Year:1967 See it:Always

Gate 2: Coalesce

The Japanese born Australian artist Akio Makigawa was commissioned to create a landmark entry statement for the Perth Cultural Centre. Gate 2: Coalesce was erected outside the Alexander Library building in 1987.

The work includes a central ‘gate’ as a symbol of the meeting place, the exchange of ideas and a passage for development. The two stepped structures flanking the gate symbolises the stages to knowledge, understanding and achievement. Surrounding this are flags and totems which represent marks of progress through the stages of developmen

Artist:Akio Makigawa Year:1987 See it:Always

Jonathan Jones untitled car parks 2012

Continuing his investigation of space, structures and ephemeral architecture Jonathan Jones has developed a site-specific work that takes a new approach to the space of the cultural centre by presenting three sculptural forms entirely below ground – his works will inhabit the underground car park below the state library.

“untitled (car parks) 2012 is a site-specific artwork which sits within my ongoing practice where cultural patterns, as mapped out in fluorescent lights, are sheathed in the banal and pervasive material of blue tarpaulin”.

“The physicality of the structure quotes the principles of ephemeral architecture where rules are bent, reinterpreted and broken to allow the construction of places like homes and shelters. This in turn encourages the viewer to re-imagine their own environment and the concept of ‘home’. untitled (car parks) then draws upon recurring concerns in my practice, in particularly the notion of creating a sense of shared space and evoking a common memory by working with domestic materials, minimal form and designs, and historical moments of bicultural relationships”.

Artwork is located in the underground car park below the State Library. You can enter through the James Street pedestrian entrance.

Download the catalogue.

Artist:Jonathan Jones Year:2012 Appeared in:29/03/2012 to 29/04/2012

Marigold

Beautiful light artworks will bring to life the windows of 206 William Street, at the entry to the Perth Cultural Centre, temporarily activating this vacant building and engaging passersby.

“Light has been a key element in my practice as I use conventional ‘fairy lights’ to make large-scale murals. In my most recent work, I have chosen to represent the female form, creating lustrous, glowing portraits. I plan to use lights to depict an intimate image of a woman reclining, and will adorn the image with a sea of paper marigold flowers. I anticipate making a ‘shrine-like’ installation that is a tribute to everyday beauty and intimacy. I hope to create a work that is warm and inviting, creating an environment that encourages contemplation and excites the imagination.” Laura Adel Johnson 2011

Artist:Laura Adel Johnson Year:2011 Appeared in:09/09/2011 to 09/10/2011

Nrvssystm

“Spurned by the outside world Bennett Miller has recently been sentenced to a one month 'residency' inside the old gaol of the Perth Museum. During this time he will investigate the many relics and beasts that reside within the museum. Miller will study the histories that are represented both by the site in a physical sense, and within the site as a functioning museum. He will look at the manner in which these overlapping histories are reconstructed for an audience. The re-presentation of history, and the 'language' of display therein, is a persistent interest for the artist throughout his previous works. He will then construct 'sets' within the old gaol site, to produce photographs and short films with a variety of subject matter.

After the conclusion of the residency a selection of these works will be presented to an audience within the Perth Cultural Centre. A series of video portals will be placed at three strategic sites within the PCC. Within this context the artist aims to draw attention to the many aspects of this environment that are largely overlooked or ignored. The project also aims to reconnect the Museum with its broader surrounds, and draw audiences slowly 'back' to the origins of the work within the museum.” Bennett Miller 2011

Artist:Bennett Miller Year:2011 Appeared in:29/08/2011 to 02/10/2011

Pushmepullyou in Utopia

“Located in the city’s cultural centre, the orchard can be seen as an attempt to introduce a structured version of nature to the urban environment, and lends itself to discussions surrounding urban habitation, pre and post colonial survival strategies, places of exchange, and Perth as a business centre. The idea is to place a number of brightly coloured rudimentary animal traps around the orchard, in conjunction with a number of birdhouses mounted to existing light poles.

Together the works can be read on many levels; the bright florescent colours of the trap seduces the viewer into focussing on aesthetic concerns and sculptural potential of their forms in relation to the built forms of the orchard, whilst denying them the camouflage needed for their intended function. In parallel, the birdhouses will also employ a modernist aesthetic, relating to the structural order of the orchard and our own urban dwellings. Similar to the traps, they will also be brightly coloured denying them any camouflage from predators, and although they will remain functional as potential homes for birds, they will ultimately also fail.

The intersection of the two elements for this project is the tension between the destructive nature of the traps, and the nurturing aspect of the birdhouses - that is to say that the traps themselves become a point of nurture (for human consumption / control) and birdhouses themselves can be considered as some form of trap (for taming / controlling nature).” Bevan Honey 2011

Artist:Bevan Honey Appeared in:08/08/2011 to 05/09/2011

Sand Art Park

Produced by Awesome Arts Festival

Artist:Hanneke Supply Year:2008 More Info:http://www.awesomearts.com/ Appeared in:01/11/2008 to 01/12/2008

Siren

Nightly, when darkness falls, the aural landscape of the Perth Cultural Centre will be temporarily transformed. The PICA Clock Tower will glow with a beckoning light and transmit a flood of voices: a musical composition and layered soundscape that reflects upon loss and recovery.

This momentary and evocative work, which takes place around nautical sunset, loosely references the maritime symbols of the lighthouse, which guides lost ships away from a hazardous shore, and the siren, whose haunting voice lures sailors to their deaths. Siren plays on tensions between drowning and drying, loss and desire, memory and forgetting, consciousness and oblivion.

Siren created by Thea Costantino and Tim Cunniffe with the Churchlands Choral Society.

Artist:Thea Costantino and Tim Cunniffe Year:2012 Appeared in:23/03/2012 to 18/04/2012

Invader is a French urban artist who is famous for his Space Invader project. Small mosaic characters are installed in public locations.

Space Invader Tile

Invader is a French urban artist who is famous for his Space Invader project. He creates small mosaics of characters from the Space Invaders video game and installs them in public locations. These “invasions” are then mapped for fans to follow.

Space Invader tiles have invaded cities all over the world. Australia was the third country to be invaded, with Invader installing 40 tiles in Perth as part of the 2002 Artrage Festival. The Cultural Centre tile is one of few remaining in Perth.

Artist:Invader Year:2002 More Info:http://www.space-invaders.com/ See it:Always

Generative Power of Opposites by Carl Scrase draws on the positive and negative meanings of the two-finger V symbol.

The Generative Power of Opposites being installed in the Perth Cultural Centre

The Generative Power Of Opposites

The 14 metre inflatable hand was created by Melbourne artist Carl Scrase through support from NSW arts organisation Splendid. It was first exhibited at the Splendour in the Grass festival in 2010.

The Generative Power of Opposites draws on the positive and negative meanings of the two-finger V symbol. Having long been associated with peace, hope or victory, the same gesture is also used to offend.

“It is quite fascinating that these two seemingly conflicting concepts could be embodied in one gesture and I think it shows the inherent contradictions at play in the world.” Carl Scrase.

Artist:Carl Scrase Year:2011 More Info:www.carlscrase.com Appeared in:01/02/2011 to 28/02/2011

The Secret of Point Zero

Two blue plaques in the Cultural Centre with strings of coloured circles are part of a City of Perth project, The Secret of Point Zero.

The Perth Cultural Centre is the starting point for the Secret of Point Zero adventure trail which guides children through the city from the Cultural Centre to the Swan River, stopping at places of interest along the way. At each of the stops there is a clue, when all twelve clues have decoded, it will reveal the Secret of Point Zero.

More Info:http://www.perth.wa.gov.au/ptzero/index.html See it:Always

Forgotten Australians Memorial, located in the Perth Cultural Centre.

Unfolding Lives

Unfolding Lives, a memorial to “the Forgotten Australians” was commissioned by the WA Department of Child Protection and the Federal Government to recognise the 56,000 Western Australians who were placed in institutional care as children, many of whom experienced neglect or abuse.

The memorial is an interpretation of the paper fortune teller toy and is inscribed with stories of the Forgotten Australians. The memorial provides an opportunity to acknowledge the past and recognise those who overcame adversity

Artist:Judith Forrest Year:2010 More Info:http://www.forgottenaustralians.com/ See it:Always

This filigree style metal artwork in the Wetland is a work by Perth artist Stuart Green.

Untitled

The filigree style metal artwork in the urban wetland is a work by Perth artist Stuart Green. It was the Premier’s selection from the 2010 Sculptures by the Sea exhibition at Cottesloe Beach.

Artist Statement: “Visual opportunity and sculptural challenge are the two halves of my practice. One is casting the net wide, looking at the world of forms, ideas and patterns. The other is testing materials and ideas against the constraints of scale, materiality and context.”

Artist:Stuart Green Year:2010 More Info:http://sculpturebythesea.com/ See it:Always

We Must Cultivate Our Garden

Scottish artist Nathan Coley is bringing his sculpture ‘We Must Cultivate Our Garden’ to Perth, the Australian debut of this internationally acclaimed artwork.

Nathan Coley is an eminent Scottish artist and Turner Prize nominee, whose practice is based on the exploration of public space and the social aspects of our built environment.

We Must Cultivate Our Garden will be shown at the Perth Cultural Centre from Friday 24 February to 26 March 2012, presented by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, Department of Culture and the Arts and Artsource.

“All of the text works I make are found from an existing source; from stories I have heard, popular song titles, radio programs or written texts,” Coley explained.

“We Must Cultivate Our Garden is a quote from the last line of the book ‘Candide’, written by French author Voltaire in 1759. It is commonly held up as a masterwork of the Enlightenment.”

We Must Cultivate Our Garden has garnered worldwide praise since first being conceived in 2006, exhibited widely in the UK and Europe including Edinburgh, Paris and Stockholm – where the Mayor wanted to buy the artwork as he felt it spoke to the people of Stockholm today.

The ten metre long sculpture is made from fairground lights, suspended on a temporary scaffolding structure; creating an intriguing juxtaposition between the profound text and dingy travelling fairground aesthetic.

“The text can be read in many ways. I take it to mean that after a hard day in front of a computer, sending emails and making calls, you should potter in your garden, watering your tomatoes. Also, it means that we are in charge of our destiny, there is no God, and that nothing should be left to fate,” Coley reflects.

We Must Cultivate Our Garden will sojourn in Perth for a month as part of the Perth Cultural Centre Ephemeral Public Art Program, an initiative of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority and curated by Artsource consultant Consuelo Cavaniglia.

“It is a really beautiful work and a great coup for Perth that we are able to host it here for its Australian debut,” Curator Consuelo Cavaniglia said.

“The sculpture stretches ten metres across and has a mesmerising presence, particularly in the evening. The beauty of the work is that it has such a simple and poignant message, which can be interpreted by the audience into a multitude of personal meanings,” she continued.

“It is the type of work which will generate a lot of interest and we are thrilled to have it as part of the ephemeral public artwork program at the Cultural Centre.”

We Must Cultivate Our Garden, follows a similar formula to Coley’s highly celebrated text based sculpture ‘Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens’, which was shown at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) during the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2010 to much public attention.

We Must Cultivate Our Garden will be installed on the roof of the amenities building across from the Art Gallery of Western Australia in the Perth Cultural Centre from 24 February to 26 March 2012.

Image: Courtesy of the artist and Haunch of Venison (London)

Artist:Nathan Coley Year:2006 Appeared in:24/02/2012 to 26/03/2012

We Will Build Our Own Mountan by Brinkmanship

We Will Build Our Own Mountain

Produced by PICA

Artist:Brinkmanship Year:2010 More Info:www.pica.org.au Appeared in:01/12/2010 to 31/12/2010