Ted Richards’ “A Waltz in the Mall”, circa 1964-68.
It celebrates life in Canberra and the city’s familiar sites and locations, such as Commonwealth Bridge, Manuka Pool, the poplars on Kingston foreshore, Black Mountain Tower and Mount Ainslie.
From Kaoru Alfonso’s large-scale installation “212”.
Other pieces draw from significant events that have helped shape Canberra’s sense of identity and self-understanding in the new millennia.
For instance, G.W. Bot’s bronze sculptural pieces comment on the notorious 2003 bushfires and their suburban destruction. Composed of a series of objects that evoke burnt tree bones and scattered seeds, the work “Tree of Life” indicates the rejuvenation and revegetation of the Australian bush.
Perhaps the most ambitious piece on display is Kaoru Alfonso’s large-scale installation “212”. The work features 212 photographs of individual apartments that comprise the famous Currong apartment block. As stated in its accompanying text panel, the experience is both distant and intimate.
At a glimpse, the units appear the same, but on closer examination, each reveals information about the people who live there.
The apartment windows also reflect the trees opposite – a comment on the intersecting of the urban and the garden city.
Unlike most cities, where public buildings are integrated into a living community, Canberra arranges its structures in austere isolation. The sense of over-planning and the overly-geometrical contributes to the city’s reputation for being bland and sterile. Art has a role in combating this accusation, and in highlighting Canberra’s cultural depth as one of the world’s only purpose-built capital cities.
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