Deakin University Sculpture Walk (Burwood)
The audio tour for the Deakin University Sculpture Walk can be downloaded or use the guide below.
Deakin University Sculpture Walk Map
1. Deakin University Art Gallery
Deakin University Art Gallery, established in 2003, runs a program of exhibitions and arts events. These include curated exhibitions drawn from the University's Art Collection, group and solo exhibitions by significant contemporary Australian artists, travelling exhibitions, and selected student, staff and alumni work.
The Deakin University Art Gallery aims to assist in facilitating the University's teaching and learning program, enrich the student experience, and make a difference to the communities we serve through the provision of a high quality art collection and a vibrant and engaging exhibition program.
Visit us on Melbourne Burwood Campus, Tuesday - Friday 10am - 4pm. Entry to all exhibitions is free.
2. Bruce Armstrong Lotus Eater 1993
Massive Red Gum figures and imaginative creatures are typical of Bruce Armstrong's output. Some are mildly friendly, such as the two beasts that once reclined at the entrance to the National Gallery of Victoria, others are as ferocious as medieval dragons or as mysterious as a crocodile-headed Egyptian god. His human figures are equally massive, sometimes maternal, other times diabolically demonic.
In Greek mythology the lotus-eaters were a race of people living on an island near North Africa where the lotus fruits and flowers, the primary food of the island, were supposedly narcotic, causing the people to fall sleep. Armstrong's Lotus Eater (1993) is introspective and withdrawn from the world, physically very powerful, yet restrained within the huge block of Red Gum. The apparent simplicity of Armstrong's style of sculpture frequently hides a range of myths, ideas and emotions.
3. Andrew Rogers, I Am VI and I Am VII 2016, and I am VIII 2018
Rogers I am series is representative one of his most distinctive forms for which he has become well-known. In these works, Rogers takes the hardened materials of steel and bronze and transforms them into swirling, uplifting and weightless contours of fabric floating in the wind. In this way, his sculptures connect abstract shapes and compositions with the figurative elements of the body set into motion. As a cluster of three smaller examples, the works demonstrate Rogers interplay between scale, shape and form.
I Am VI 2016 was exhibited as part of 'We Are' a display of eight major bronze and stainless steel sculptures in a collateral exhibition to the 57th Venice Biennale, Italy.
4. Sebastian Di Mauro, Past the Boundary Waters 2003
This work was first exhibited, hanging from the trees in Werribee Park, as part of the Lempriere National Sculpture Award in 2003. For those spectators accustomed to the solidity of bronze or steel, the lightweight, two-dimensional jug and the linear outline of a canoe must have been somewhat bemusing. Adding to the perplexity was a statement strung from tree to tree: 'Past the Boundary Waters.'
If visitors had purchased a catalogue they would have read the artist's statement that he 'investigates the metaphysical', so even though he is intrigued by the 'materiality of the everyday' he wishes to transcend the limitations of physical matter and introduce abstract concepts.
This work has more to do with the ideas generated than with traditional, formal sculptural values. A jug: thirst, water, purity, baptism, or advertising for a cafe? A canoe: sport, youthful adventure, rivers, ocean, danger?
Consequently, the work is more complex than it might at first seem.
5 Brigit Heller, Poles Apart 2003
For a sculptor who is greatly influenced by her environment, coming from Switzerland, green and closely cultivated, to the sparsely populated open spaces of Australia must have been a visual shock for Brigit Heller. As she has said: 'In many ways I have reinvented myself by moving to Australia,' yet she has also brought memories of the past with her. Her maternal grandfather was a basket weaver, a traditional technique which Heller has adapted to a range of materials found in the new environment.
It is revealing that Heller has chosen to live in a country area where she can scour the land for natural materials such as willow branches or coils of rusted wire in order to construct organic forms such as Poles Apart (2003). A quick glance reveals that these commanding works are built of steel pipes and coiled wire, but they read as exotic plants that have unexpectedly grown from the lawn; they suggest that nature can still survive in an architectural setting.
6 Lisa Roet, Chimpanzee Finger 2003
Lisa Roet may use drawing, video, photography, sound or sculpture to convey her ideas, but the subject matter is always the ape. Over many years she has had residencies and been engaged in various projects at major international zoos and private research institutions. She has also observed apes at close quarters in their natural environment in the forests of Borneo, Malaysia.
Not only is she fascinated by the great similarities between humans and apes - our closest animal relatives - she is also intrigued by the differences.
In 2005 she was awarded first prize in the major Contemporary Sculpture Survey at McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery with her very imposing, larger than life, White Ape. By presenting the ape in the form of a classical sculptural bust - head and shoulders - she equated the primate with the numerous bronze busts of historical dignitaries, yet by choosing a contemporary material - fibreglass and resin - she emphasised the fact that it was a work of the present, not of the past.
Whether the reaction is intellectual or emotional, spectators are confronted with a question: What does it mean to be human?
The same questions arise when viewing the bronze Chimpanzee Finger which Roet produced in 2003; the finger has a fingernail as we do. We have accepted that a fingerprint is a statement of our individuality, but the chimpanzee also has a fingerprint.
This simple, single object raises questions about creation versus evolution, religious beliefs and science.
7 Jon Tarry, Liminal Blues 2002
Jon Tarry can be best described as a multi- disciplinary artist. With training in both fine arts and architecture he has exhibited and carried out commissions in many areas of the visual arts. Liminal Blues at Deakin University is only one aspect of his oeuvre.
His practice is diverse in style and sometimes quite unexpected: he produced a series of relief structures based on the runways at airports and as a commission, an extremely realistic bronze figure of Bessie Rischbieth, a feminist activist. The figure was based on a black and white photograph taken in the 1960s with her holding an umbrella aloft.
By comparison, his work at Deakin, Liminal Blues, is almost a minimalist sculpture. Tarry showed the maquette for this work in the first exhibition at the newly established Icon Gallery at Burwood Campus and subsequently received a commission for the large-scale version. Liminal is not a word in common usage, but it is very appropriately used in relation to this work where it can be defined as the initial stage of becoming something, the point at which something begins.
Liminal Blues is a simple vertical form that rises effortlessly from a small base; the brilliant blue is suggestive of the sky on a sun-filled day while the strong vertical movement perhaps implies a sense of escape, of freedom, of expansion.
8 Laurens Tan, Hellbent 2005
Born in Holland, Laurens Tan spent some time in Singapore and Indonesia with his Chinese parents before arriving in Australia in 1962. As a practicing artist he has had studios in Sydney and Las Vegas, and currently lives and works in Beijing.
This nomadic existence has led Tan to regard himself as an outsider. However, it has also enabled him to absorb various influences, resulting in a complex identity with diverse areas of expertise; he has been a tertiary lecturer, writer, curator and highly original sculptor.
Establishing himself in China has meant access to low-cost studios as well as cheap manufacturing of large-scale works using hi-tech processes. His interest in new technology goes back many years: Hellbent was produced using CAD software in Australia back in 2005. It is an enigmatic work, reflecting the sculptor's multi-cultural background.
Inexplicably, Hellbent leans to one side, could it in fact be an elaborate seesaw? Not perhaps a seesaw for childish pleasure, but rather a symbol of opposites: night and day, work and play? Further examination reveals that there are also symbols referring to the 8 hour day (which was first established in Melbourne) and the blue and white patterning obviously has associations to the patterns on Dutch Delfware, originally inspired by Chinese ceramics - the latter creating links with the artist's early life in Holland and his Chinese parents.
But why Hellbent? A dictionary definition of hell-bent as 'determined to achieve at all costs' appears, in fact, remarkably appropriate for Laurens Tan.
9 John Kelly, Maquette for Public Monument 2003
During World War II, the painter William Dobell was reputed to have made several papier-mache cows which were distributed across an airfield to confuse Japanese bomber pilots. Kelly made numerous paintings and several sculptures using a stylized version of these cows, the most famous being the Cow Up a Tree (1999), which was originally exhibited on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and can now be seen at Melbourne's Docklands.
After receiving a small grant from the Australia Council, Kelly was obliged to use their logo, which consisted of a kangaroo and the sun, but he became involved in a dispute with this funding body. Obeying the letter of the law, but expressing his irritation, he made a series of sculptures using the emblems but holding them up to laughter and ridicule. In his so-called Maquette for Public Monument (2003), the silhouette of the kangaroo stands on its head.
10 Andrew Rogers, Of Freedom and Will 2020
Of Freedom and Will consists of five bronze sculptures bound together by a heavy bronze rope. This cluster of sculptural forms suggesting a group of human figures in chains. Strongly recalling the memories of conflict, Rogers gives representation to ongoing suffering and the power of resilience and fortitude.
11 Peter D Cole, Landscape Figure 2001
Whereas landscape has been a reoccurring subject for Australian painters, this has not been the case with Australian sculptors. Peter D Cole is the exception: the landscape of his early childhood at Gawler and the dry, sparsely treed land near Kyneton have provided him with his subject matter.
He has evolved a personal visual language whereby a series of symbols represent the sun and the moon, the rocks on the earth, the stars in the sky, the linear pattern of a tree or the vast dome of the sky. And like a child with colourful building blocks, he has proceeded to assemble his sculptures in space or to arrange the symbols on paper as pastel drawings.
In Landscape Figure (2001), the links to the landscape have become minimal and the emphasis has been given to simple sculptural elements, enlivened by a bold use of colour.
12 Adrian Mauriks, Compilation 2003
After a period constructing sculptures from welded steel, Adrian Mauriks settled on the process of establishing the basic forms in polystyrene, which he then covered with several layers of fiberglass impregnated with epoxy resin. His installations, painted a glistening white, have become well-known features at Docklands and on the highway to Geelong.
Compilation (2003) is exactly what the title suggests, a gathering of several disparate forms into one unified assemblage based on motifs that the artist had previously used. The 'doorway' is easily identified, the tall structures resemble plant growth, while the curvilinear form suggests a reclining figure. The sculptor invites the spectator to enter a pristine garden of mysterious delights, to exit this frenetic world and to relax in quiet contemplation.
13 Inge King, Guardian Angel 1995
Originally apprenticed to a woodcarver in Berlin, Inge King attended the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts before moving to London, where she became a student at the Royal Academy. Later she enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art and was awarded both a Diploma and Post Diploma in 1943.
Except for a small number of figurative works produced early in her career, King has been known for most of her life as an abstract sculptor. Nevertheless, a significant change can be noted in 1989- 90 when she produced Joie De Vivre, a series of dancing figures for the foyer of ICI House, Melbourne. Subsequently there was a flow of works based on the human figure - including a series of angels, Kneeling Angel, 1993, Running Angels, 1994 and Guardian Angel, 1995.
The work at Deakin was fabricated by J. K. Fasham, using large plates of steel, painted black, with the addition of a stylized wing in rich red. Undoubtedly, it is an angel of the twentieth century.
14 Andrew Rogers, I Am 2020
Rogers I Am series is representative one of his most distinctive forms for which he has become well-known. In these works, Rogers takes the hardened materials of steel and bronze and transforms them into swirling, uplifting and weightless contours of fabric floating in the wind. In this way, his sculptures connect abstract shapes and compositions with the figurative elements of the body set into motion. This tall slender sculpture is scaled at human form with its head bent over leaning in a forward direction. In this work Rogers extends his use of bronze, transforming it to appear as a smooth and soft material.
15 Augustine Dall'ava, Distilled Knowledge 2000
Augustine Dall'ava has carried out a number of public commissions though the majority of his works are on a smaller scale, suitable for indoor locations. Always meticulously crafted, and frequently defying gravity, his works can be easily identified by the adventurous assemblage of brightly painted forms in wood, metal and stone.
Distilled Knowledge (2000) was a commission for Deakin University, and Dall'ava thought symbolic content seemed appropriate. Consequently the tall, upward pointing conical structure was designed to represent evaporation, the hemi-sphere a formalized cloud and the zig-zag forms at the top to represent falling rain. The granite basin acts as a receptacle for gathering distilled water - symbolizing the distillation of knowledge within the University. Yet even disregarding the symbolism, the sculpture works convincingly when viewed in purely abstract terms.
16 Konstantin Dimopoulos, Red Field 2014
Konstantin Dimopoulos was first noted in Australia for his highly distinctive installations of masses of flexible shafts of carbon fiber, usually in a single strong colour, such as his favourite orange-red. The Sculpture Red Centre (2006), a clutch of rods flexing in the wind, installed on Federation Square, Melbourne is a well-known example.
Since 2005 he has also carried out a number of ephemeral installations in which he has painted the trunks and branches of groves of trees a bright ultramarine blue, his aim being to draw attention to global deforestation.
17 Dean Bowen, Echidna 2013
Bowen looks at the world with the eyes of a child, delighting in birds and bees, cats and dogs and the animals of the bush. His world is populated with friendly farmers and ladies holding bunches of flowers despite being threatened by encroaching suburbia and choking traffic.
Whimsically, due to the similarity between the spikey appearance of the Echidna and the artist's hair-style, this creature has appeared frequently in both prints and sculpture by Dean Bowen.
18 Peter Blizzard, White Cloud Shrine 1999
Only after he retired from his position as a Lecturer from the Art School at the University of Ballarat in 1995, was Peter Blizzard able to devote himself full-time to sculpture and to developing a truly personal style.
This style, by which he is so identified, developed from his love, and deep reverence for the natural world: the stones, the rivers, the vegetation, the sun, the moon. While initially his works grew out of, and related to, the Australian landscape he so loved, his visits to Japan were also to have a profound impact.
The Japanese have revered nature for centuries, though it is nature carefully manipulated and controlled and utterly different to the ragged untidiness of the bush.
Blizzard was greatly impressed by the temples and gardens, and by aspects of the animistic beliefs still prevalent in Japan; he noted that stones often took on a sacred significance as part of the Shinto religion. Likewise, the Japanese admired and responded to Peter Blizzard's affinity with the natural world and he was honoured by being invited to exhibit his works in Japan on a number of occasions.
In this work, White Cloud Shrine, the sculptor has taken a water-washed stone from an Australian creek bed and given it semi- religious significance: a sacred stone being blessed by purifying water falling from a white cloud.
19 Reg Parker, Face to Face 1979
Reg Parker trained as an arts and crafts teacher and taught as a secondary school teacher for some years before he was appointed to the staff of Burwood Teachers College in 1961, now the site of Deakin University. Like so many sculptors who became teachers in order to earn a living, he had all too little time in which to produce his own work.
But what he did produce, particularly after the 1970s, was of a consistently high standard. Strongly influenced by Minimalist sculpture which originated in the USA, his works relied on the precise arrangements of simple geometric forms.
20 Peter Blizzard, Coastal Altar 1999
Peter Blizzard had a deep reverence for the natural environment whether it was the bush where he lived, the interior of Australia or its coastal areas. He greatly admired the rugged beauty of the You Yangs - that ancient monolith that rises abruptly from the flat land between Melbourne and Geelong - and two enigmatic titles refer to this very Australian landscape: Thunderhead You Yangs Sky and Stone Cloud You Yangs.
A journey along the Victorian coast led to a series of other works such as the Coastal Altar and also Vertical Wave Totem which was exhibited in the first Lorne Sculpture Exhibition in 2007.
In the catalogue for this exhibition Peter accompanied the sculpture with a characteristic statement: 'Thoughts about the sacredness of the sea - the water - the air - the coast - the inland - the bush - the deserts - the sun - the moon - and the whole environment. Venerate the earth and walk lightly upon it.'
21 Tim Jones, Night and Day 2005
Tim Jones is both a highly original sculptor and a print maker of distinction; the subject matter in both disciplines is often very similar with landscape a reoccurring theme. He remembers the windswept trees and the dense forest of his homeland in Wales, and these have appeared in his very intricate, small scale wood cuts. Living now in country Victoria, near Hanging Rock, it is the Australian landscape that provides additional stimulus for both sculpture and prints.
Some years ago he produced a delightful series of stunted little trees with their fragile trunks and branches cast in bronze, sometimes with a small bird perched on top or the crescent moon captured in the branches. The roots of these tenacious trees appeared to spring from weathered rocks, which acted as bases for the sculptures.
Interestingly, however, the origin of Night and Day was neither Wales nor Australia, but Tuscany in Italy. Here he observed with fascination the tall, elegant pencil pines that dotted the landscape as their silhouettes appeared to alter with the changing light: the rounded green forms appeared to flatten out, to almost seem concave as the light failed.
Returning to Australia with his memories he carved two trees as symbols of night and day: one green tree in full sunlight and other dark blue as representative of the twilight. Carved in Cypress pine they were first displayed in 2001 at an outdoor exhibition at Seawinds, the park above Arthurs Seat on the Mornington peninsula. Sadly they were attacked by vandals, broken off at the trunk and found only considerably later, abandoned in the bush.
However, the idea remained in the sculptor's mind and four years later he modeled the same trees in clay, made moulds and cast Night and Day in bronze. Two Italian pencil pines transplanted to Australia ... memories given permanence.
22 Judy Holding, Kadjimulk's Tree 2007
Judy Holding works across several media and is currently noted for her extraordinarily colourful water colours, her prints, and her sculptures.
Though there are differences between these means of expression, her reoccurring motifs are predominantly birds and trees. The paintings are joyously filled with exuberantly colourful birds almost overflowing the limits of the page. The sculptural trees are more restrained because, as the artist says, there is always the problem of how does it stand up? The tree trunk becomes a significant part of the composition.
She has produced a wide range of tree forms: the strict two dimensional image of a laser cut silhouette, small trees that have been cast in bronze and others with real branches in wood. And just as her water colours are filled with birds of every possible hue, so too her trees are painted in gloriously unrestrained shades of bright orange, pale blues and pinks.
Though her works are visually accessible the title of her sculpture at Deakin University, Kadjimulk's Tree, needs some explanation. Judy Holding has visited Arnhem Land over a period of thirty or more years and not only has she been influenced by Indigenous culture but she has also built friendships with Aboriginal people. In 2007 she wrote in a catalogue of her exhibition - 'Kadjimulk's Tree is titled in honour of a friend ... who was a Traditional Owner of the country where I work when I am in the Northern Territory. It is a tall Blue Northern Gum from the monsoonal escarpment of the Kakadu Region.'
She adds an interesting comment - 'A feature of the Eucalypt is that one can see through the tree to the vista beyond: also there is a marvellous energy between the positive and negative shapes of branch and leaf that makes the Eucalypt unique.'
23 Vincas Jomantas, Wooden Cruciform 1965
While we have quickly learnt that a red traffic light means stop, and the symbols used on our roads have become internationally recognised and understood, we may not be so familiar with the meaning of symbols that have been used in the past. Consequently, without the title, Wooden Cruciform, many spectators may not have attributed any religious symbolism to this work and would simply have viewed it as a complex abstract composition.
But for the Lithuanian born Vincas Jomantas, symbolism underpinned much of his work. As the last country in Europe to accept Christianity, Lithuania still retained strong links with its pagan past and Jomantas was acutely aware of these earlier pantheistic beliefs - clearly seen in the folk art of Lithuania - where there is often a unique combination of the Christian cross and the circle with radiating lines symbolizing the pagan sun goddess.
In this sculpture, Vincas Jomantas, the consummate craftsman, has exploited the colour and texture of wood by firstly burning it and then with a wire brush emphasizing the texture of the grain. The resultant work, while decidedly of the 20th century with its suggested abstraction of the human figure, also harks back to an earlier time with its combination of both pagan and Christian symbols.
24 Inge King, Hanging Cloud 1978-80
Over the years Inge King had a number of exhibitions at Realities Gallery in Toorak, including a major solo show in 1977 when she exhibited works such as Great Planet, acquired by Queensland Art Gallery. At first glance one could think that this very impressive sculpture could be regarded as an example of Minimalist sculpture, but it was more than a simple circular form: the almost imperceptible concavity and the cylindrical hole that pieced the centre gave this work a mysterious presence.
She also made an interesting statement about the work in this exhibition, which was notable for the use of the circle as the basic form. She said she was aiming to create a sense of suspension - a feeling of weightlessness in some of the forms - but acknowledged that she would be working on this for some time in order to achieve it.
But achieve it she did, as can be noted in her next exhibition at Realities in 1980, when she exhibited the Hanging Cloud. Here, some of the forms appear to almost float within the linear structure that is suggestive of a frame, more usually associated with painting. Of the three discs (three clouds?) suspended within this frame, one rests horizontally at the top, one falls outside the frame at the bottom, while the biggest of the three discs is precariously held in the centre of the composition as it twists and turns in space.
Three discs and a linear frame -'You strive for simplicity, for clarity of expression,' she had stated and in this work that aim was surely achieved.
25 Gillie and Marc, The Musicians 2016
Music has the power to dive into people's hearts and emotions, transcending borders and touching the whole world. Without a definitive race, religion, orientation or culture, Gillie and Marc's iconic hybrid-duo symbolise the acceptance of all people as one. Inspired by the fact that in some form, every one of us has created, listened to, and shared music, the works celebrate the connectivity that music brings for all humanity.
The Musicians is part of a progressive global project by the artists called #TravelEverywhereWithLove, which was born out of the conviction that it's more important than ever that we put our differences aside and protect each other through love. By listening to people across the world through the art of music, we can begin to understand each other on a higher level and can come together in friendship to change the world. By sharing a photo with the hashtag #TravelEverywhereWithLove, you'll be standing with your fellow humans who believe in love and acceptance.
26 Terry Matassoni, Art Tram 837 (Matassoni) 1992
Deakin has revived a piece of Melbourne's cultural history, with a retired W-Class Tram making its new home on Burwood campus.
The arrival of the Art Tram 837 is part of a VicTrack initiative, where over 130 retired W-Class Trams are being repurposed around Victoria and Tasmania, into community features such as cafes, learning spaces, food trucks and playgrounds.
Our new tram - which has been in storage for approximately 30 years - is especially unique, as it is the first of the iconic Transporting Art - Trams to be rehomed. The Transporting Art - Trams were originally commissioned between 1978 and 1993, as a way to reimagine traditional public art from conservative statues and sculptures into mobile, vibrant and provocative pieces in a public arena. As part of their modern repurposing, the trams are now being gifted to an institution of the artist's choosing.
Art Tram 837 was created in 1992 by former Deakin lecturer, student and Art Gallery exhibitor, Terry Matassoni. Deakin and Terry have had a close connection for many years. Currently, there are 10 artworks by Terry in the University Art Collection, and in 2003 he held a solo exhibition 'A walk into town' at Stonington Stables Museum of Art, Deakin University.
The new W-Class Tram can be found outside of Building H, opposite Building BC. It arrived on campus in late-July, and will become an informal learning space for students and staff. Informal learning spaces are collaborative spaces for people to engage, connect and work in a relaxed environment.
27 Max Lyle, Fountain 1967
Fountain (1967) is a most unusual combination of two opposing structures which sweep upwards and then descend dramatically downwards. Originally, it was designed to spurt water from a row of projecting conical forms with the water splashing against sheets of glass before dispersing amongst the bed of river stones.
Max Lyle remembers that it was Bill Splatt, a member of staff at Toorak Teachers College, who organized the commissioning of Fountain, but it was the Student Union which provided the funding.
The work was transferred from the old Toorak Campus in Malvern to Deakin University's Burwood campus, but as this happened at a time of drought and acute water shortage, the work was not re-established as a fountain.
Fortunately, even without the play of water, the work can read as an original, unexpected relationship of two striking forms rearing up like exotic plants from an arid landscape of rocks.
28 Adrian Mauricks, Strange Fruit 2010
Strange Fruit was first shown at the McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award in 2010 and was gifted to the Deakin University Art Collection in 2020. On his website, Adrian Mauriks says of the work :
"A chapter in the history of the world.
Genetically altered forms that resemble living organisms.
The forms are part of an intimate landscape experience.
An inspired desire to capture something of a living presence".
29 Andrew Rogers, Many Lives, 2009
Many Lives is a unique marble relief carving and a collection of river stones which closely relate to Rogers' land art project 'Rhythms of Life' developed by the artist from 2007 to 2011. The carved wall-based relief depicts Rogers' trio of shapes including a spherical base, a central structure and dancing twisting ribbons expressing the changing ebb and flow of life. Contrasted with natural stones originating from various locations across the globe, the materials, shapes and forms of this work echoes life's unpredictable turns and unexpected journeys.
30 Ewan Coates, Upperground, 2007
Upperground was originally shown as part of the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award at Werribee Park.
The Parks Victoria publication that accompanied the exhibition states:
Underground resembles a cathedral structure; raising questions about the relevance of the church and evolution of traditional teachings, in an era when religion causes schisms in our world. The burning of the structure encourages new foliage to grow over an old form. The foundations may stay roughly the same shape or evolve into something entirely new.
July 2010
Other works by Coates are held in various public galleries including Heide Museum of Modern Art, Werribee Park Sculpture Walk as well as private collections in Australia, United States and United Kingdom. Another of Coates sculptures acquired by Deakin called Fountain of Youth can be seen at the Deakin University Corporate Centre, Deakin Downtown in Melbourne's CBD.
31 Greg Clark, Hold 1991
Hold is a sculpture that uses and incorporates discarded industrial elements including old radiator parts that have been welded together.
At the centre is a playful stage created with a mix of plaster and dirt, cut and ground steel combined with water and sand, ultimately creating a porous centre. Clark enjoys the hellish aspect of corrosion and Hold was created with a view to articulating the feelings Clark had for sculpture at the time. He describes it as "one element wrapping around another".
32 Judi Singleton, Connecting Vine 2009
Connecting Vine was an on-campus project created in 2009 by students from Deakin University under supervision of the artist Judy Singleton, with technical assistance from Peter Fergusen.
33 Laurens Tan, As Weeks Go By, 2005
Originally shown as part of the Helen Lempriere Sculpture Award at Werribee Park, As Weeks Go By represents four weeks of time as they disappear before our eyes, including the opportunities built into each day as represented by randomly perforated cams. Tan says "We are all pre-occupied with time because we either waste or lament the passing of youth and opportunities; you will notice the lights of the present week are going faster and one of them is today, the fastest of them all."
In it's current location the sculpture's flashing lights are not in operation however it's connection and representation of time passing are evident in the sculptures form and sense of movement as it appears seemingly to be cycling above and below the grounds surface.
34 Andrew Rogers, I Am I 2016
Rogers I Am series is representative of his most distinctive forms for which he has become well-known. In these works, Rogers takes the hardened materials of steel and bronze and transforms them into swirling, uplifting and weightless contours of floating ribbed exterior patterns. In this way, his sculptures connect abstract shapes and compositions of figurative elements of the body set into motion. This sculpture is scaled at larger than human form.
35 Andrew Rogers, We Are 2021
We Are has been used on a number of occasions by Rogers as a title to describe a group of individuals interacting as a group and referencing the dynamic between singularity and community. We Are is a more recent example and continues Rogers' testing and experimentation with bronze. Here Rogers' wrapped fabric like forms are stretched vertically so the shapes resemble three elegant wraiths. Ways of remembering and memorialising have been continuing themes in Rogers' public sculpture practice. This work elegantly captures the artists reverence for the sanctity of an individual's life.
36 Andrew Rogers, Flora Exemplar 2010 - 2020
This more recent example from Rogers' Flora Exemplar II series is a diptych of two interlocking sinuous forms and is now located in the garden bed of Building BC.
In Flora Exemplar II Rogers' coiling stems, languorous leaves and flower buds and heads curving and twisting form elegant lines. A comment by the artist on the ongoing devastation of the natural world.
37 Andrew Rogers, Embrace 2018
Located behind the dance and performing art studios Embrace (2018) is a stainless steel sculpture of two intertwined forms and is similar to the companion piece Embrace (2020) located in building B. Rogers' iconic wrapped abstract shapes here are embracing as two figures holding each other in their arms. Previously exhibited in 2018 as part of the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Embrace captures a sense of momentary movement as the individual forms dance and circulate becoming one choreographic entity.
38 Andrew Rogers, I Am 2015
Rogers I Am series is representative of his most distinctive forms for which he has become well-known. In these works, Rogers takes the hardened materials of steel and bronze and transforms them into swirling, uplifting and weightless contours of floating ribbed exterior patterns. In this way, his sculptures connect abstract shapes and compositions of figurative elements of the body set into motion. This sculpture is scaled at larger than human form. The polished stainless steel smooth interior, contrasts with its striped exterior.
39 Andrew Rogers, Walking Through the Wind l, Walking through the Wind ll and Walking Through the Wind lll 2017
Located in the garden courtyard between dance and performing arts are a trio of sculptures by Rogers collectively titled Walking Through the Wind. In these immaculate stainless steel works Rogers contrasts a sleek, polished, interior surface with the ribbed textured exterior surface. The twisted steel-cloth like material appears to be dramatically shaped by the extreme forces of nature. The central forms are also seemingly pushing back, heralding a victory.
40 Andrew Rogers, Leading 1999
In 1996 Rogers made a series of works which explore the duality of natural and mechanical forms. Many of these works include a central coil type form connected to a base plate and are contrasted with forms inspired by an unravelling shoot of a young plant. With its central coil and curving loop. For Rogers this series of works embody the interplay of life's natural and technological forces suggesting a powerful progression. A smaller version of this work is displayed at Deakin Downtown and another is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
41 Andrew Rogers Balance 2002
First created as a smaller maquette, Balance is part of Rogers' ongoing series of works that feature shapes, symbolic of organic growth and transformation. Here, Rogers joyfully presents an interplay of dancing bronze ribbons, twisting curves and a floating disc that are frozen in a delicate balancing act. Rogers abstract motifs are precariously cantilevered on a base representing forms undergoing an evolution. A larger version of this work is also on permanent exhibit at the Hall Park Sculpture Garden in Frisco, Texas.
42 Andrew Rogers, I Dream 1995
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2023
43 Andrew Rogers, Construction 1994
Before embracing organic forms inspired by nature, in the early 1990s Rogers explored different abstract compositions to experiment with bronze as a material and to test various techniques. Here hard-edged shapes are stacked vertically, stretched and bent to create a sense of movement and lightness.
44 Jon Tarry, Overlay 2000
Jon Tarry creates art as a way of testing ideas about the prosaic, political and poetic, in the form of sculpture, drawing, film and sound. His work explores art and architectural conditions as a comparative investigation of spatial intelligence. The process of creating his works informs a new understanding of the medium and the subject he is examining. For Tarry, the act of generating his art is just as significant as the work itself.
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