SWELL SCULPTURE FESTIVAL 2014

It was a beautiful day, golden sunny and sky blue, so we set out to see the Swell sculptures at Currumbin. We had driven by on the first Sunday afternoon, but it was busy, hectic, people and cars everywhere, spreading out for half a kilometre from the oceanfront. Though early Monday, it was still difficult to find a parking space, but persistence and tolerance - an acceptance of distance - paid off. We strolled along the road towards the esplanade after claiming our spot, donning hats and collecting cameras. High on the top of Elephant Rock were what could be described as the flowing tentacles of an octopus moving gently in the wind. These inflated, two-tone, linear green forms filled the small square platform that topped the mammoth-shaped lookout. Each long tentacle tapered to a fine point. There were five, three short of the required number, but everything else supported the title, Octopus Attacks, (66). Images of volcanic eruptions came to mind; and wild monsters. This work was literally the landmark piece for Swell, but it wasn’t used as this. It was the only sculpture that dominated the seascape, and indeed, one of the few that had some nautical, seaside reference. It was impressive, but the catalogue used a detail of the chain sculpture, (57), on its front cover, and a rear image from last year on the back cover, with no reference to indicate this. One wondered if there was some ‘colonial’ protest here, as this was a ‘UK’ work - imported: see Swell List.

There was something familiar with our arrival. We approached the limits of the sculpture display area just beyond Elephant Rock, knowing what had been arranged for last year’s festival, and all was again confirmed. We got what we had remembered. There was some degree of disappointment in this discovery. There was the same linear arrangement; the same small ‘hub’ tents; the same-looking handbook, at the same price and with the same graphics. One promotional, painted koala was the main difference, and this was very pretty, but not part of the main event. Should a creative festival do better than this mere repetition? Was it just maintaining a safe and predictable format for its easy management - economy?

It turned out that the writing of a review for 2014 would become somewhat repetitive too. One was written last year: see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/swell-sculpture-festival-2013.html  Much the same could be said about this year’s festival and sculptures because not only was the organisation for the occasion much the same, but about one third of the sculptors were also showing their art again, with familiar techniques that reminded one of their previous pieces. It is good to see the artists presenting their work, but having it recognisable by its subject, materials and techniques does leave one wondering if things might not be getting a little too repetitively mechanical, all when inspiration and creativity are supposedly the core elements in art. Why did this disappoint?

The 'food court'

Chris Trotter’s piece oddly titled 5, (38), was familiar in the way that it seemed to accept farm machinery as a literal object to enjoy rather than using these pieces and parts in a more completely transformative manner that can truly amaze. Last year’s work was a very literal Blumbergville Stationary Engine that was the engine on a pole with a few bits added. One sees the astonishing morphing of forms in his early work. Alas, his current pieces seem to have become too interested in enjoying the machine parts for their own particular interests. Indeed, they are worthy of special attention, but the highlighting of their quirky parts seems to be an interest more suited to a museum of farming history.

Again, Michael Van Dam’s Intervention, (57), used his welded chain technique to make a whale in a hand. Last year his sculpture was in the form of large chain links made of chain, titled Degrees of Separation, a nice self-referencing piece that holds an integral sense that does not exist in the whale-hand. This year seems to have been a struggle to invent a different subject using the old technique and a process for discolouring the stainless steel. The sculpture disappoints because of this repetition that fails to inspire, even though one can admire it. The story of the whale takes over as a separate, literal concern in spite of the skill of the technique and the coloured lights that illuminate a few of the parts of this piece.

And Daniel Clemmett, with his winning Keeping up with the Kalashnikovs big gun, (23), used the same coloured metal panel technique as his Two dogs in a house on a boat in the water used in 2013. One was left looking at the interesting bits and pieces, pondering how this sculpture could be the winner. The only positive aspect of this work seemed to be that it aimed directly at Surfers Paradise: if only! But art needs to be more than some suggestive strategy, or political or social comment. It seems that the judges have read more into this work than the artist originally intended. Might it have been a winner in more ‘peaceful,’ less politically stimulating ‘terrorist’ times?

Then there was Georges Cuvillier’s Tunnel van de Liede, (61), a giant bamboo structure much like that of 2013, but in a different location and articulated as a different form, and with a different name. Last year it was the same bamboo, well a few bits in 2014 looked new, and the same clever connecting system, with another enigmatic title: De oogst (The Harvest).

Will these artists, and others, try again next year with new versions of the same? In total, there are 21 artists who have again submitted work in 2014, out of a total of 66: see Swell List. It is disappointing to see that they appear to be working to a formula. Only the familiar work of Ivan Lovatt Wolf, (34), managed to stimulate and intrigue with its blatant repetition, such is its stunning expression. Last year his Curious Bird sculpture used the same galvanised chicken wire to shape an emu. Even his galvanised chicken wire dog in the Smalls gallery was intriguing and maintained one’s engagement without disappointment. Repetition does not have to stifle experience with boredom.

Yet again, most sculptures stood alone, ignoring all others, and the sea, while trying to maintain some semblance of similarity or reference to their titles and texts, as in the 2013 works. Frequently there was an unbridgeable gulf between the work and its ambitions that were itemised in the label and the accompanying text. But this year, perhaps because of the familiarity, one could sense something more: that the ‘art’ itself has become an entertainment, its ‘difference’ being an important characteristic being used to stimulate ‘interest.’ People still lined up to be photographed with their selected favourite pieces like tourists - “Go and stand over there” - especially with the more bizarre scultpures, all in a context of a not so nice place. Looking at the microcosm of the work and the person seeking to be seen with it, made one look further at the larger context for this exhibition space - the place it was in; the other objects that gathered around the sculptures, sharing their space and place but not their attention or admiration. It was all very alarming, as if one was interested only in the beauty of the pieces called ‘art’ rather than in any part of the living built environment that appeared to be tolerated. Folk seemed blind to this clutter. There were signs littering nearly every aspect of this place, interwoven with the ‘art.’ Some sundry items, a yellow life savers’ seating frame, (why are they now called ‘lifeguards’?), a stump, a rock, a trash can, a sign, a road repair, a road marking, even a drain, could be differentiated from the artworks only by their lack of any formal plaque. Had the required plaque been in place, then these parts of the everyday could easily have been admired by the accommodating gaze and enjoyed differently as ‘art;’ but no. Each everyday piece was ignored as a part of the familiar that was just accepted in all of its imposing ugliness.

We need to do better than this. Art is never just an alternative or abstracted entertainment. Art holds a potential for stimulation and change that engenders respect and amazement: wonder; marvel. Tradition explains that there are works with which  ‘one cannot marvel enough.’ That a work might force one to see differently does not make it consequential; that a work might seek to be dissimilar in order to surprise, does not make it art. Many sculptures on display seemed to struggle with meaning: see Swell List. Artists appeared to be endeavouring either to establish a significantly esoteric meaning for a piece, or labouring unsuccessfully to achieve the expression desired in the forming and making of the thing - the work itself as a material, not ethereal, item. There is a personal quality involved in this understanding, a matter of the spirit; but some pieces involved personal matters that were too intimately individual. This approach might make the artist feel good, but it does not alone make good art. There seems to be a lot of searching that is required in order to achieve a richer synthesis that can be embodied in ordinary experience. Too many works stood lost to the eye, the body and its emotions, and required words for any preferred, alternative understanding.

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The surprise was that there was a Swell Smalls Gallery display in a gallery shop opposite the esplanade exhibition. Here one discovered the works in miniature. Even though many exhibits repeated the sculptures seen opposite, and were available for purchase ‘TO ORDER’ if they were sold out, as if they were from a production line, the works looked different at their smaller scale. Is there a problem with making big sculptures for outdoor display? The maquettes, for they appeared as this, had a life of their own even when mass-produced ‘to order'; and they sold well too. Is it that one is used to this gallery viewing and buying? Maybe we need more public sculptures? Dublin sets a good example here: see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/bacons-sacrambled-studio-francis.html

While all of what was said about last year applies to the 2014 works too - see http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/swell-sculpture-festival-2013.html  - one must say more. That there are those who hold an interest in and choose this kind of work is encouraging; that there are those who have these commitments and skills is something to encourage, promote, as Swell does. That art seems to be so isolated from our lives, placed into a zone of entertaining acceptance, is something that needs to be overcome. The great urge to make, and to make beautifully, needs to become something that is the norm rather than being merely an event to promote and display once a year. The Currumbin esplanade is indeed a place of natural beauty, but it has been infiltrated and developed by some of the worst examples of urban clutter possible. Signs are everywhere; aeroplanes roar in overhead to land at the nearby airport; tall buildings crowd the hills, just as the life savers’ club restaurant squeezes itself rudely up against Elephant Rock, confusing its anthropomorphic form while trying to commercialise the tiny piece of oceanfront land beside this natural landmark. Why was this development ever approved? Why is such an ad hoc array of buildings approved? Why do people need so many signs? Why can respect and care for beauty not become an integral part of our everyday living? Why is art so isolated; categorised; specialised?

If we are learn anything from Swell 2014, it is that there needs to be much more attention given no only to art, but also to the integration of the thinking and skill involved in art with the making of our built environment, and its management. It might sound like an environmental ‘green’ issue, and it does involve this: but it is always more. The vision of an environment, both built and natural, co-existing and enriching, must be an ambition that drives all of our actions. That Councils and planners might be allowed to create such places as Currumbin has become needs to be given more thought. The question is: what has to change if we are going to create environments in which art itself can be at home, as well as the people who share it everyday? Why is it that our environments are so spiritually drab? Why do they constantly disappoint?

Why do we have to take a certain stance in order to look at art? Art is never entertainment based on difference. It needs to find its place in our lives. It means that we all have to change if art is to be more than a commodity. It was good for one artist to sell a smaller set of bronze sculptures for $10,500 - alas going to Singapore - but it is still alarming to see the prices that some sculptors put on their works, as if value has something to with its being seen as ‘great art.’ Great prices do not mean good or great art, even though great art does claim enormous amounts of money in our culture. The circumstances referred to here are subtle and complex, but this should not mean that they should be ignored.

Doing nothing only means more of the same, again and again. Swell needs to set an example and accept the challenge to be as creative as it expects its artists to be. Repeating the recipe every year will only emphasise its role in the calendar of events: here it is again, in the same ‘mess’ of Currumbin with the same ‘hub’ tents; the same ice cream vans; the same coffee outlets; the same distribution; the same catalogue; even the same artists; etc. The challenge is to make Swell the same rich experience with a new vitality and difference. It has to be more, and can be, than a provincial version of a sculpture event seen elsewhere: a regional copy. It must develop its own strengths. The struggle for status seems to be managed by awarding controversial winners - a big gun this year; an old caravan last year. These awards might create promotional drama, but decisions like these only emphasize the smart difference that this art is seeking to be, when it must be more than this. Promoting evening viewings is problematical when there is so little light. It was odd to see folk with their own torches.

How can sculptures relate better, to each other and to this seaside place? How can this place be enriched for the everyday? Here the thinking is that we can start with matters small and insignificant; then we can do this elsewhere; and again; and again, until we start linking these marvellous small places up, to create a truly beautiful south east Queensland  - even a Queensland? Australia? This would do one important thing: it would make this place desirable for all to visit and enjoy for its own unique qualities, rather than for the present perverse struggle to create quirky tourist attractions to pull the crowds in. Current ‘art’ seems to hold only this same ambition. We must do better if we are to become more than performers, commercialising our everyday in order to attract tourists in ever-greater numbers so that we can extract at least the average amount spent by these visitors, and more, and more. Such an approach only encourages greater and more absurd extremes of eccentric difference that seek only to attract with their amazements: yes, just like our ‘art’ – see: http://springbrooklocale.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/who-or-what-is-tourist.html

Is this an 'SOS' for art?

THE SWELL LIST 2014

Note: The # tag represents those artists who exhibited in 2013 - see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/swell-sculpture-festival-2013.html 

There are 21 out of the 66, nearly one third, who have submitted again this year. It is this core of repeated style, even materials, that gives the 2014 festival a feeling of the familiar that somewhat stifles one’s enthusiasm for creativity, its discovery; its experience - surprise and intrigue. Unfortunately sometimes one sees only variations of more of the same, but the event is worthwhile, if only to make one think about art and life. A quick comment is made here on each piece in order to record first impressions that can be either confirmed or transformed with time, thought and reconsideration.
For illustrations and texts relating to these works see: 
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/swell-sculpture-festival-catalogue-2014.html

01        Lachlan Hansen            Container

One is baffled not only by the work but by the text that seems to clutter itself into incomprehension with clever words collected into clusters of incredulity.

02        Mimi Dennett                        LandSew

Stiching up the earth by stitching it up. Too literal? ‘Stitching things up’ carries a sly touch that is doubtful.

03        Annie Long                Freefall

‘A waterfall of resin words’ – ephemeral. One sees a surface of sideways script that awkwardly skews the head as it seeks to interpret the text.

#04      Claire Sewell              #instalife

While one can agree with the sentiments of the text, it is difficult to interpret this feeling from the work that looks like a crowd of Nolan Kellys; or are they frames to capture landscape, that don’t? It is not that one has a camera that makes this difficult to interpret.

05        Eric Green               Adianturn

Maidenhair fern? This ‘Hepworth’ sandstone carved with spore-like images creates a challenge for others to experience the true delicacy of maidenhair fern.

06        Ged McCormick            Wipe Your Feet

A lovely wall of thongs that shows how ordinary things can create a marvellous patterned presence.

#07            Vanessa Stanley            Total Internal Reflection

A colourful work with an attractive overlay of colours with a reflective panel capturing the surrounds. It seems to do what the artist is seeking to explore.

08            Jacqueline Damon            Walk at Yuraygir National Park

An interesting work that references a national park that is difficult to conjure up emotionally.

09        Lauren Gray                 Plastic Strings

A nice piece that uses rubbish cleverly. It is a shame that this is not seen as an ephemeral work, (for a cost of $9,000, one might hope for time), since the cheap, packaging plastics are biodegradable and will disintegrate with time.

#10            Andrew Cullen            Our Beating Heart

A truly enigmatic piece that has to do with a heart that reminds one of folding Chinese decorations.

11        John Fuller                Two Directions

Having slats run along bridge/seat elements for others to ponder leaves a gap in experience, wondering how one might think about ths, and what one might do with this physical reality.

12        John Wilson              Sea Ball

As with 19, would a geodesic form be more beautiful geometrical structure that presents a minimum of real forces interacting efficiently, rather than creating a ball of wool effect around two large intersecting circular frames? What happened to the lighting?

13            Andrew Suggit            Miami Ice

It must have melted away?

14            Marianne Galluzzo            Shifting Ground

It is difficult to see the old train station, pie stall, kiosk and dunny here, even though the artist thinks that they might be there. Personal visions can sometimes be so close to one that they remain accessible only to the creator. These look like tables and chairs made form old timber, with some diagrammatic spiky sea anemones placed on them.

15        Luke Zwolsman            Spatial Sound

The ‘unseen /intangible things and experiences (may) resonate the strongest’ but this work is cast in stone and is really a polished and rough form with a gap. Where is more? The void struggles to express the meaning that is claimed.

16        Jack Wankowski            Tsunami2

Words here do more than the sculpture. Real damage is more dramatic and alarming than this symbolic piece. One has to again ask, as in 19 and 12 whether some art piece can be better than the real functioning failure or performance.

17        Gille & Marc Schattner            Happy Birthday

Wow! Just as one sees it! ‘Happy Birthday Mr Presidnet XO’ says it all without pretence. This is a truly amusing piece with nice references that layer into the experience.

18        Thomas Reiffscheid            Upside Down

The artist claims that this is ‘showing a sign of balance and joy.’ But the experience is more uncertain, interpreting the title as a literal description. Words alone do not generate feelings in sculpture.

19        Ibrahim Koc                 Seagull

Just a gull with no explanation, at last. One has to ask if form and function are not more beautiful when they come together as in a Boeing metal wing rather than trying to create schematic beauty out of pieces of metal made to appear like as a wing might, but with no possibility of flight beyond the imagination.

20            Johnathan Francis            Transformation

An interesting sand sculpture idea that is always intriguing to observe.

21        Clayton Blake               Air Filled Celluliod Cloud

Yes, it looks like a cloud with a hole but why is the secondary layered cloud on such an intrusive steel post? The link to the questioning of ‘cloud’ storage is too direct and is missed as one admires the blue sky against the sculpture and through it.

#22      Rainer Schlueter            Dancers with Masks – Variations in Blue and Gold

The blue is remembered from last year. Are there parts that have been reused? The circle is always an interesting form that does help with the whole idea of mystery.

#23      Daniel Clemmett            Keeping up with the Kalashnikovs

A big gun pointing at Surfers Paradise. The technique can be remembered from last year. There is something jokey about this piece that makes it difficult to feel what the artist is trying to materialise.

24        Alex Polo & Michael Dowling            Nurture

The explanation provided for this work struggles to find expression in experience. Is it too literal?

25            Frederic Berjot            Fantome (Ghost)

It is difficult to take this work seriously. Plastic pieces over some frames with external lighting at night struggle to represent the aboriginal dilemma. The forms suggest ghosts, Casper-like.

26        Antone Bruinsma            Amazing Grace

Amazing size is difficult to convert into something like ‘grace.’ The carving is bold and schematic, of large scale, and presents an assurance without great subtlety.

27        Joe Stark                Jamming at the Beach

An interesting piece that sadly reminds one of the cliché Don Quixote figures imported from Asia as cheap art. It has a quirky comic book appearance that disturbs the skill.

28        Jina Lee                  Harmony

The Buddhist world of tradition was able to capture qualities such as harmony and serenity in its works. This pieces appears to struggle to achieve a harmony between the bronze and the stone that it wants to achieve.

29        Dion Parker              Through the eyes in the back of my head

An enigmatic work that has a strange explanation of its form and resolution. The viewer is left asking for more, seeing the sculpture almost as too trite.

#30      Jim Bower              The Question of a Tree Seat

A lovely seat. It is good to see a work that is not attempting to become something else with clever words; but the title seems to try too hard. One would really enjoy having this seat around a tree. The tree would like it too. Sadly it was displayed around flags, not a tree.

31            Vanessa Anseline            Perfectly Imperfect

After visiting Warwick’s Jumpers and Jazz Festival, this work seems to be one of many seen before, even though the colours are pretty.

32        David Stott     The Star That Fell To Earth

A nice piece of geometry nicely made. The ambitions and expectations expressed in the text struggle to be perceived in this work that is obviously real and tangible.

33        Edward Blower Reel

A little work that intrigues. It sits nicely on the beach as it comes together and falls apart as one moves around it.

#34      Ivan Lovatt  Wolf

Last year it was an emu; but what can one say with such stunning skill in the transformation of galvanised chicken wire? It is indeed a marvellous piece of work – a true wolf in every way. The repetition of the technique does not diminish the surprise.

35        Glen Star      Erebus

A marvellous horse that looks stunning on the beach, arousing all of the mystery, symbolism and power of this animal.

36            Giuseppe Filardo            Vessel Element

This piece has beautiful shadows, but it is difficult to experience the concept in the forms.

#37      Brad Jackson            Remember when we used to …

The simple magic of spinning a top has become formalised as an ‘aesthetic’ formal idea. The simplicity of the physics is lost in these ponderous pieces.

#38            Christopher Trotter            5

5? The title is enigmatic - are there more? - but the sculpture itself is like a small tractor with some little bird faces on it. It is sad to see that the rich, subtle humour and the transfiguration of reality seen in the early work has gone. An enthusiasm for the pieces themselves and their provenance appears to have taken over other ambitions.

#39      Monte Lupo            Vertummus

A set of four very attractive pieces that have a Grecian feel about them, yet they fail to communicate their essential interaction as the seasons. They merely stand as alternatively decorated pieces marking no essential space, place or time.

40        Carly Scoufos            The Studio

A lovely relic with a haunting window view somewhat like a Fellini image with the curtain blowing in the void of wind through the window.

41        Jess Poulsen            Sea Pod

An elegant idea nicely resolved. It holds some of the qualities sought. The hanging shells move and sound beautiful in the wind. The frame is the weakest part, but it holds everything together spatially. It is one of the few works that looks good with its soft night lighting.

42        Mark Turner  Best Dressed

A simple story that has a descriptive title – a best dressed bird seeking freedom. Sadly the bird is not well formed, appearing different, but insufficiently different to cause one emotion – just an awkwardness with the form.

#43      Scott Maxwell            Throne of Games

A very pretty, impressive seat that has an unfortunate ‘heavy’ pun in its title. Even though the artist wanted people to sit on the work, few did so, such is the tradition with art, as the artist notes. The large number of signs that repeatedly remind one not to climb on the works does not help.

44        David McGuinness            Device Tethering

Who knows what this means beyond its blatant story. The imagery is too literal to dance as an idea or to concern one with its ideology. Perhaps the figure would have been better by itself without the huge mobile phone form sitting behind it. Think of Michelangelo’s suffering figures.

45        Jack Quilter  Bridge Light

This work looks like a Leonard French painting – bold with strong form and brash contrast. Just how one is supposed to read it as a metaphor becomes a problem. One guesses that last year it might have become a ‘totem.’

46        David Ardley  Floating in the Light

These paintings are very beautiful. They intrigue. Just how they make a sculpture is a puzzle, but this does not change the reading of the exquisite work with is a tryptic set as a triangle.

#47      Greg Quinton            Little People

This piece looks just like the open drain in the park. Just what the little people are doing is unclear. They can hardly be seen. One has to look at the photograph in the booklet to see the figures and read the text to understand the political stance presented.

48        Shelly Kelly    Beacon for Hepworth

At least Hepworth is acknowledged, but her work that is over fifty years’ old. As a tribute piece it is interesting, but Hepworth’s 1950s- 1960s works were always more precise and to the point, responding to the materials she used.

49        Michael Blazek  SOS (Save Our Surfers)

It is difficult to understand this piece as the text would like us to: the loss of ‘iconic land forms, architecture, design and signage, at Surfers Paradise. Gosh, one had to read the words in order to discover that ‘Surfers’ was ‘Surfers Paradise’ not just swimmers. It is a shame that the illumination is not checked and maintained.

#50      Glen Manning & Kathy Daly            Touch

A strange title when the signs everywhere suggest that one should not get too involved in the works. The piece is a little better at night, but the lighting is hazy. By day it looks like pieces of cut albino passionfruit.

51        Tracey Sarsfiel Woven Into You

This work is spooky. It fails to get close to any ‘deeper spiritual force’ especially with the sad current news about beheadings in one’s mind. It really looks like a body hanging from a tree with the multiple legs representing a futuristic frantic struggle, kicking.

#52      Jules Hunt            Paradise – Girt By Sea

A well-made arch that stands nicely on the esplanade. Trying to establish some meaningful signification becomes a challenge. Maybe it is best left as a pretty archway that throws delicately interesting shadows. It is always a struggle to try to convert an object into ‘art’ with applied words.

#53      Leonie Rhodes            Gomukhasana 2014

As for 54 and 55.

54        Jaques Van der Merwe Woman and Hyena

This sketchy bronze. One could say much the same as 55. One sees a roughly modelled clay woman and hyena cast as a bronze. The text seeks more than this but it is not immediately evident as experience.

55            Catherine Lane & Linelle Stepo            Post Colonial Colony

The text is ambitious, but the work is straightforward – diagrammatic bats in a tree, lots of them. One has to read to discover more.

56        Jake Hempson            Hidden Reflections: Tursiops

Is this experimental piece seeking to do too much?

#57      Adriaan Vanderlugt        Hatchlings

This is a realistic piece that sits beautifully on the beach. Just what one is supposed to do when looking at this re-enactment is the question. It would make a perfect tourist exhibit that could keep visitors away from the living turtles.

#58      Michael Van Dam            Intervention

This is so close to last year’s piece that one does slip into ‘seen it before’ mode. The subject does not appear to hold the power or emotion that it is seeking to embody and allows one’s mind to wander.

59        Phillip Piperides            Reflection

A somewhat classical bronze nude that is a bronze nude. Just how it fits into this context remains a problem, especially with the permanent bronze sculpture on the site setting the example.

60        Janna Pameijer            Sea Change

The kangaroos do not look too strange here, only their bulky, schematic forming. The heads are neatly shaped but the mass becomes like a door stop by the time it reaches the ground. Still, the forms have a nice kangaroo sense about them as they appear to sniff the beach air.

#61            Georges Cuvillier            Tunnel van de Liede

It is an interesting structure, but one is left wondering if these are the same pieces of bamboo used last year, put together slightly differently. Structure is better less than more. The tie system is probably the best aspect of this work that frames the path wit a busy interlacing.

62        Tersia Parsons            Veiled Views

This work is getting too introspective and personal. Not everyone carries the same interest or finds it interesting. One only knows about the strategy once the text has been read. It is a shame that flat batteries leave the work in the dark. There is the possibility that this little piece might improve with its lighting that would emphasise the dolls house interiors.

#63      Rosie Harvest            The Girl on the Beach

This reminds one of last year’s effort in sticks. There is little that transforms here; few surprises other than discovering the view from the sea side.

#64      Kirsty Foley-Lewis & Louise Paroz            Neon Rush

This is a very nice piece that lacks pretension and looks excellent on the beach. It achieves most of its ambitions skilfully.

#65      Allen Horstmanshof            A New Beginning

One can understand the work as a literal interpretation of the title. The piece itself carries little of this magically elusive sense as lived experience.

66        Filthy Luker & Pedro Estrellas            Octopus Attacks

A stunning landmark icon that sits beautifully in this context of sea, sky, sunlight and winds. Was it too obvious a winner, or was it the ‘UK’ that made it difficult for the colonies to praisethis piece?