Curling tendrils of copper echoing the qualities of husks are placed adjacent to the site known as First Farm.
Artist: Bronwyn Oliver
Curator: Sally Couacaud
Curator: Sally Couacaud
Artwork description
Nestled among the trees near Farm Cove in the Royal Botanic Garden is a pair of overscaled seed or pod-like sculptures made of copper, Magnolia and Palm. These sculptures were commissioned as part of the Sydney Sculpture Walk for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Placed adjacent to the site that became known as First Farm, artist Bronwyn Oliver employed the seed form as a sign of new beginnings, laden with the potential for growth and transformation.
Before European settlement this part of the foreshore was a mudflat. Seed and flotsam were washed up by the waves. Ships arrived on the tide in 1788 and crops were planted nearby soon afterwards on the site that became known as First Farm. This area has been dedicated ever since to the introduction and propagation of plants reflecting the changing cultural and horticultural needs of the day. Historically the site provided the new colony with sustenance and food crops from European seeds, and it is still used today for propagating new and exotic species.
Rippling copper rods branch upwards from a granite base, like veins towards a tapered tip. The surface is covered in thin curling tendrils of copper echoing the qualities of husks or seed-shells found among the surrounding foliage in the gardens. Sited close by to each other, beneath a palm and a magnolia tree, these sculptures are intended to symbolise elemental forms ‘washed up by the tide, blown by the wind, eroded by water and laden with the potential for vigour and transformation’.
“This sculpture is intended to symbolise an elemental form washed up by the tide, blown by wind, eroded by water and laden with the potential for vigour and transformation. It began with the bud of the magnolia tree above.”
– Bronwyn Oliver
Artist
Bronwyn Oliver (1959–2006) was an Australian sculptor who practised and taught in Sydney. Oliver worked primarily in metal. Raised in rural NSW she trained at Sydney’s College of Fine Arts and London’s Chelsea School of Art. She received numerous awards including a NSW Travelling Art Scholarship in 1981 and the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship in 1994.
Inscription
Magnolia
Bronwyn Oliver
Before European settlement this foreshore was a mud flat. Seeds and flotsam were washed up by the waves. Ships arrived on the tide in 1788 and crops were planted nearby soon afterwards. This area has been dedicated ever since to the introduction and propagation of plants reflecting the changing cultural and horticultural needs of the day. This sculpture is intended to symbolise an elemental form washed up by the tide, blown by wind, eroded by water and laden with the potential for vigour and transformation. It began with the bud of the magnolia tree above.
Installed: June 1999
