Quiet Times

Evening all, hope this finds you well. A quiet time in Melbourne at the moment as we prepare to move into our new home. The last 2 weekends have been taken up with finding and choosing new carpet, moving some smaller items in around the laying of the timber flooring. It's starting to look like a floor again and will look great when it's all finished. We did manage to have a great night last night sharing dinner & a glass or two of a good Red with friends.

Just in case you thought I would be too busy to find some interesting item to share with you all, have no fear, I have some on hold just for an occasion like this, so this week we have 'The Guardians'.

" Two monumental abstract white marble sculptures 6.7m high standing on bases clad with brightly coloured mosaic tiles The Guardians, by Simon Rigg, at Melbourne's Southgate precinct near the Crown Casino, the commissioning body. Simon Rigg says of these pieces, "The spiral ceramic cone pedestal of ‘Guardian I’ supporting the smaller marble sculpture is wrapped in a growing fig vine relief, entwined protruding branches grow from the base supporting a canopy of leaves and camouflaging small birds. A habitat and nesting place that supports the marble. Earthly ceramic colours enhance the spiralling cone as if a rotating shoot from an old tree, something that appears part of the landscape, as opposed to the ‘Guardians 2’ form which appears recently landed on the foreshore pedestrian walk.

The ‘Guardians 2’ pyramid pedestal is less yielding in contrast to the organic cone pedestal. Panels of terrestrial hieroglyphics evoke other civilizations and times. The burning sun symbol cools its tentacles in a sea of fish and whales tales emerging from eared shell like forms. Maybe the listeners of the deep? An all seeing ‘third eye’ mixes with repeated images of the above marble form in fleshy tones with flying feathered tails drifting in a yellow void. What does it all mean? These images and symbols are the very ingredient for children’s stories as they explore the pedestals and interpret the forms in their own minds. They will create their own meanings for the ‘Guardians’.

In contrast to the expressive ceramic pedestals, the smooth, cool, white, organic surface of the marble evokes continual movement through the play of light and reflections off the Yarra River. This is most evident at night, when the forms are lit by ground lights, and the colourful ceramic surfaces dissolve into light and shadow, black and white monochrome relief, where marble becomes ceramic and ceramic transforms to marble. The seven ton marble ring represents a male form and a short distance away the smaller female form, a symbol of earthiness on a vine covered-cone".

until next time..........