Thoughts, stories, ideas and musings.
Thoughts, stories, ideas and musings.
The Journal
The making of Australia’s tallest bronze sculpture, Skater
INSERT NAME
INSERT DATE
Artists Dean Colls and Lu Skačej of Aludean, frequent collaborators of Meridian, were recently called upon by property behemoth Gurner, to design and fabricate a monumental sculpture referencing the rich history of St Kilda's esplanade and foreshore. This significant piece is a tribute to the St Moritz Ice Palace, which operated between 1939-1981 and was a grand feature in Melbourne's most famous bayside suburb.
The Skater is an example of the far-reaching possibilities which arise from the collaborative efforts of modern engineering and time-honoured artisan finishing. At 6 meters tall, this celebration of a former landmark is a fitting icon for the Saint Moritz development.
The 'Skater' was cast in sections which were later welded together. Working from CAD models to produce machined foam patterns, the 6 meter skater required 26 individual bronze castings to be sequentially joined. A unique feat in scale, the Skater was relocated once it began to outgrow our Fitzroy foundry. At the secondary site the figure was fitted with reaching arms, then expertly finished and ready to embrace a new, coastal home.
At Meridian, we are proud to share this piece with you; a technical casting that required many months of work. The 'Skater' is an example of the endless possibilities of bronze sculpture, and we hope it inspires those who come across it.
We want to thank Dean Colls and Lu Skačej for trusting Meridian in the realisation of this very special project.
Ancient Techniques For The Future of Storytelling
All at Meridian believe art and public monument to be an integral part of the human experience and critical to the building of a unifying culture. As the world struggles with social upheaval and inequality, recent movements have targeted colonial sculptures in a desperate effort to call out and condemn racism and prejudice, no matter its historical context. Although you can argue the merits of such mob justice, it is true that we must more critically assess how we timestamp our history. New stories that acknowledge a diversity and social fabric beyond male celebrities and sports stars for example. We might be biased but we want some of these stories to continue to be told in bronze wherever possible. Traditional it may be, but it’s still unrivaled ability to stand the tests of time means an opportunity to share powerful stories with generations to come. Further and by way of this durability, bronze happens to be a sound environmental choice of 'cultural material' as fiberglass fades, steel rusts, and concrete corrodes.
Centrifuge Cast Bonsai
Technology
In 2018 Meridian was commissioned by artist Julie Davies to turn a real bonsai tree root system into bronze; a challenging undertaking due in part to the very fine section widths of the roots, and their delicate detail. There are common systems for achieving very fine detail metal castings but they mean jewelry scale results which were not economic for this project. We needed larger parts, that were also very fine, but no such system existed outside of expensive vacuum casting machines. So the next six months saw us developing and prototyping various custom centrifugal casting machines, with more than a few missteps and engineering problems to resolve! But in the end and via some clever pneumatics, we prevailed, and along with some very technical metal fabrication skills, produced the unbelievable Bonsai sculpture unveiled at the CCP Alex Rizkalla retrospective. Few gallery attendees would believe it was a bronze casting. This capability is unique to meridian and allows us to achieve large and complex parts otherwise ‘uncastable’ and this includes complex 3d printed parts. Please let us know if this technique holds appeal, we’re itching to fire it up again.
Yarri and Jacky Jacky; The Great Rescue of 1852
Featured Artist: Darien Pullen
July 4th, 2022
The town of Gundagai in NSW, was a pioneer agriculture settlement originally sited on a floodplain; a fact known to the local Wiradjuri landowners who duly warned the new arrivals. Of course, progress sometimes lacks a balanced vision, and so the town grew until one day in 1852, unprecedented weather conspired a 'great flood' to decimate the town and endanger its citizens. Some drowned, but a vast number of townsfolk were saved by aboriginal locals Jacki and Yarri who, with the help of others, used bark canoes to rescue them to safety, risking their own lives in the process.
In 2016 we were contacted by the Gundagai/Cootamundra Shire Council who after much lobbying by locals whose relatives had been saved by these men, wished to commission a proper memorial to their selfless bravery during a time when many indigenous people in the area were co-opted into dubious labor arrangements with their white neighbors. With the strong support of the surrounding village communities, the Shire, and as part of a main st upgrade, funds were raised and Melbourne artist Darien Pullen was selected to build the work with Meridian. We're all very proud of the result.
Gundagai to this day remains welcoming and progressive in its treatment of the first Australians, mainly those residing in nearby Brungle, and its public hospital was one of the first maternity wards in Australia to admit pregnant aboriginal women, greatly improving birth outcomes for their community. Despite this, the funding of high-concept, permanent, and public commemorations of indigenous leaders, creatives, heroes, and their various stories remains a rare occurrence in this country. Given the present anger around institutionalized racism and prejudice and the lens focused on the colonial origins of this, it feels like the next decade is a chance to turn the tables and showcase a new era of more inclusive and fair-minded politics... hopefully!
And yes biased as I am, bronze remains a sound choice to tell such tales since it lasts long enough to teach those yet to come, where they came from.