Latest news with #Sculpture
SBS Australia
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Black women rising: new bronze sculpture for Circular Quay
Sydney's Circular Quay will be home to a new sculpture that celebrates First Nations Women. At 5.5 metres high, Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala, meaning Black Women Rising in the Dharwal language, is a bronze sculpture of an Aboriginal woman rising powerfully from water. 'She's in a body of water, and she's almost forming as she's coming out of country," artist Alison Page said. 'She rises in a way that gives her a lot of sorts of spiritual potency and a lot of energy, but it just makes it more spiritual." Page, an award-winning Dharawal and Yuin artist, developed the work in conversation with curatorial and cultural advisor Rhoda Roberts, culture and heritage expert Rowena Welsh-Jarrett and members of the Sydney Coastal Aboriginal Women's Group, made up of more than 20 women from La Perouse and Redfern. 'I wanted to do a woman coming out of the earth, but it had to ... represent all women," Page said. 'I didn't want it to be an individual, like the way white fellas represent their figures in history, in bronze. "It was a decision of the Coastal Women's Group very early on to make this work about all women.' The figure's design also represented the deep connection Aboriginal people have to Country. 'We went camping on Cockatoo Island (in Sydney Harbour) and we started talking about this figure and it was important that she become part animal and part woman," Page said. 'We decided to focus on the whale, which is our totem, the Dharawal totem, and so she's got the belly of a whale." Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala will be unveiled outside the Waldorf Astoria Sydney hotel at Circular Quay next year. Page wanted to create a sculpture that embodied a figure coming through layers of steel, glass and concrete, while being both a part of and extensions of Country. 'And to also be there on such a permanent level like we can never be erased again," she said. "It's just a moment of huge pride for our women. 'What we're really marking is our survival, our continued connection to Country, and also our female power in a white man's world."
BBC News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Secret Dorset: Family links twin statues cast 100 years apart
Every day, in London's Piccadilly Circus, thousands of people pass a world-famous statue of a winged god, toppling forward after firing an arrow from his widely known as Eros, the statue, which tops the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, actually represents Anteros - Eros's brother in Greek was erected in 1893 to commemorate the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, a politician credited with improving the lives of Victorian 100 miles (161km) away, at the family's estate in Dorset, an identical - but much lesser known - Anteros points back towards its likeness in London. Radio Solent's Steve Harris went to St Giles House in Wimborne to see it and find out more about its origins. "It's mistaken for Eros because he's a winged god with an arrow, but Eros is representing love and passion and romance," said Nick Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury."Aphrodite realised he was uncontrolled and wild so Anteros, who was Eros's brother, was the balancing force."It's a really beautiful statue."Sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert was commissioned to create the statue in honour of Lord Shaftesbury's Victorian ancestor, who was known for his work to restrict child labour and replace it with original statue has been removed multiple times for repairs and the entire fountain has even been repositioned. Metallurgist Simon Clarke, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, was involved in its restoration in the 1990s, when it was fractured by a football fan swinging on its said: "It was the first major aluminium sculpture back in the 1890s so it's quite unusual."When Gilbert was commissioned to produce the sculpture, aluminium could not be mass produced. It was like a semi-precious metal."Gilbert decided he wanted a light statue - all the Victorian statues around London were dark, cast in bronze or iron. "He wanted something that would stand out." In the 1980s, the Fine Art Society created a set of 10 replicas of Anteros."This is number 10," said Lord Shaftesbury at the family's Dorset estate."There was no assumption that one would come here. "At that time, St Giles was in a period of abandonment and falling down."Someone involved knew this one needed a home so we were put in touch. "To have such a proud family memorial was an amazing opportunity." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Rhyl Journal
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
Jenny Eclair backs £3.8m fundraiser to ‘save Hepworth artwork for the nation'
Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for millions of pounds. Toward the end of 2024, the sculpture was given a temporary export bar to prevent it from leaving the UK, allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it. The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have launched an appeal to acquire it, with the aim of permanently and publicly displaying the sculpture in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where artist Dame Barbara was born. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Sir Antony, 74, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. 'The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported.' Sculptor Sir Anish, 71, who won the Turner Prize in 1991, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation. 'Art fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all. 'This sculpture comes from a period of work by Hepworth in which she explores form and emptiness and looks forward to radical modernity.' Simon Wallis, director, The Hepworth Wakefield, added: 'We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. 'This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born.' The museum is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. The art work is made of painted wood and string and is part of a larger series in Dame Barbara's oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St Ives, Cornwall.
South Wales Guardian
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
Jenny Eclair backs £3.8m fundraiser to ‘save Hepworth artwork for the nation'
Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for millions of pounds. Toward the end of 2024, the sculpture was given a temporary export bar to prevent it from leaving the UK, allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it. The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have launched an appeal to acquire it, with the aim of permanently and publicly displaying the sculpture in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where artist Dame Barbara was born. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Sir Antony, 74, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. 'The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported.' Sculptor Sir Anish, 71, who won the Turner Prize in 1991, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation. 'Art fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all. 'This sculpture comes from a period of work by Hepworth in which she explores form and emptiness and looks forward to radical modernity.' Simon Wallis, director, The Hepworth Wakefield, added: 'We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. 'This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born.' The museum is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. The art work is made of painted wood and string and is part of a larger series in Dame Barbara's oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St Ives, Cornwall.
North Wales Chronicle
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
Jenny Eclair backs £3.8m fundraiser to ‘save Hepworth artwork for the nation'
Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for millions of pounds. Toward the end of 2024, the sculpture was given a temporary export bar to prevent it from leaving the UK, allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it. The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have launched an appeal to acquire it, with the aim of permanently and publicly displaying the sculpture in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where artist Dame Barbara was born. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Sir Antony, 74, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. 'The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported.' Sculptor Sir Anish, 71, who won the Turner Prize in 1991, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation. 'Art fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all. 'This sculpture comes from a period of work by Hepworth in which she explores form and emptiness and looks forward to radical modernity.' Simon Wallis, director, The Hepworth Wakefield, added: 'We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. 'This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born.' The museum is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. The art work is made of painted wood and string and is part of a larger series in Dame Barbara's oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St Ives, Cornwall.
