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Art in the park: Glebe Park, Canberra



In the centre of Canberra, Glebe Park is a lush, brick-paved, tree-filled expanse that serves as a playground for children, arena for concerts, open space for exhibitions and festivities, a spot for family and corporate lunches and picnics, as well as a haven for individual respite and rest. Amid the gardens and trees are a number of sculptures. Egle, the Queen of Serpents, by artist Ieva Pocius, is an elegant bronze caped woman based on Lithuanian mythology. She was a bicentennial gift from the Lithuanian community to the park, unveiled by the Honourable Ros Kelly MP, on November 5, 1988. Egle marries a serpent prince who is subsequently killed by her outraged family. Stricken with grief, Egle undergoes metamorphosis, thus transforming into a tree. Adelaide sculptor, Ieva Pocius (1923-) depicts Egle soaring upwards with a soft roundness to the form. She is renowned for her pieces in stone, wood, ceramic, steel, and bronze.
The World Peace Flame Monument by local Ngunnawal elder Jim Williams is a sandstone erection etched on one side with the message: May all beings be at peace. In Sanskrit on one side is: Om namoh bhagavate vasudevaya - which translates to: Lord, offering my respect unto the Personality of Godhead the son of Vasudeva. On another facet of the monument is a scattering of Bogong moths, large moths whose annual migration from Queensland to Victoria passes directly through Canberra. The moth, a source of food, is also an important part of male initiations and ceremonies for Ngunnawal men. The Ngunnawal peoples' lands encompass much of the city of Canberra and the surrounding Australian Capital Territory. He presented the monument as a gift to the people of Canberra from the Life Foundation on March 30, 2001.
The statue of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) by Ram V. Sutar is a bronze likeness of the apostle of non-violence (October 2, 1869 to January 30, 1948). It was unveiled by His Excellency the Right Reverend Dr. Peter Hollingworth, AC, OBE, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on August 15, 2002. Ram Sutar (1925-) studied in Bombay (Mumbai) and received a Mayo gold medal for modelling. His most well-known piece is a bust of Mahatma Gandhi which has been presented by the Government of India to countries such as France, Italy, Argentina, Barbados, Russia, England, Italy, and Argentina where they have been put on display on the occasion of the Gandhian Centenary Celebrations.
“Windstone – a trail of a cloud” was created in 2008 by Japanese artist Koichi Ishino. It is a 2.3 metre high stainless steel and granite piece, a combination of materials that have different visual and tactile qualities. The solidity and surface detail of natural granite is a sharp contrast to the ethereal, mirrored surface of stainless steel. It has been described as an experience of landscape and sky, or of the conscious and unconscious. It was launched on November 16, 2010, by Jon Stanhope, MLA, Chief Minister and Minister of the Arts and Heritage in Canberra. For the past twenty years Koichi Ishino has been developing original inlay techniques and producing works that combine the contrasting materials of metal and stone. Created with superlative skill, by joining and polishing the steel and stone perfectly into one smooth surface, Ishino’s sculptures emanate a unique sense of tension such that not the slightest gap or separation exists between the materials. Another piece, entitled “Windstone – earth and sky” is situated at Bondi Beach near Sydney. He was an artist in residence at the Australian National University School of Art Sculpture Workshop in 2008.








 

 

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MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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