Comments on: Russell Street Sculptures

By: Mark Holsworth

Mark Holsworth — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:52:33 +0000

What about Simon Perry’s work around the city, esp. the Public Purse? Perry knew that they could plonk that anywhere in the CBD and people would understand it. At the opening of the �Space Invaders� exhibition Ruper Myer, the Chair of the National Gallery of Australia spoke about street art creating �a paradigm shift in public art�. That will be the solution to bureaucratic public art commissions. Looking forward to having something new to write about.

By: mdonnellan63

mdonnellan63 — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:13:57 +0000

…but the tree – the healthiest plane in Russel Street and one of the best in all of Melbourne. The sculptures must be conferring them some sort of benefit. (or the toilets are leaking).

By: CDH

CDH — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:09:46 +0000

Apart from the Bourke and Wills statue on Collins/Swanston, the war memorials and the 3 businessmen on Russell, I don’t think very much of Melbourne’s street sculpture. Most of it seems cheap and devoid of meaning. It’s like a bureaucrat in the state government opened a cheque book and said ‘lets buy as much culture as possible, at the minimum price’.
The st George and Joan of Arc statues out the front of the state library are well made statues, but them seem to be trying to obsequiously appropriate European culture. The statues you discuss here are part of a slew of contemporary art installations that just seem pretentious and leave me feeling confused and jilted. The statues opposite the NGV are a weird eclectic mix of Roman busts and contemporary works, whose only similarities are that they’re in a perpetual state of disrepair (of course, that’s going to change for one of those statues in about 2 weeks now…)