Public sculpture commissioned in the memory of our dignitaries has been known to cause a stir amongst art lovers as well as those who take a position on public art.
In recent days there’s been chatter internationally about a statue erected back in 2009 to honour Lucille Ball, which sparked a Facebook group titled We love Lucy! Get rid of this statue. It now looks as though the statue will be replaced soon. I have to admit that the sculpture is really weird – what were they thinking?
Canberra has been served well with public art pieces, most of which I like and several not so much; but that’s life. Public art programs in Canberra have had their own checked history but despite this I believe that the city needs an ongoing well-funded public art program. It’s a good look to have many styles of art outside in all sorts of locations but it needs a particular intelligence to get it right.
In amongst the present lot across Canberra we have a small selection of memorial figures. The most formal is the statue of Edmund Barton, on Kings Ave outside the Edmund Barton building. It was meant to be the first of many in that very traditional ‘up there on a podium’ style and luckily this was not followed through.
