Today Kathy Allam was awarded The Experience Extraordinary Kid’s Choice Prize of $1,000 funded by Eventscorp. Her piece happy floating dream cloud was voted number one by the kids who visited this years exhibition. While Allam says the piece ‘reflects on childhood desires and the pleasure of enjoying the unabashed, exuberant colour of plastic toys’, I couldn’t help but ponder something else …
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Kid’s Choice Sculpture by the Sea 2013, Cottesloe © The Ponder Room
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Standing underneath the vast collection of toys it made a unique wind chime, as Barbie careered into a dog, a turtle, a train and what looked like several Bob the Builders. Thankfully the plastic sauce bottle was empty, otherwise the carnage would have appeared all too real for little innocent eyes.
Clearly Barbie hasn’t realised she’s just blown her chances for the latest Government Road Safety commercial, I mean there’s hands-free and then there’s … ‘wave your hands like you just don’t care’. At least there’s no mobile phone in sight.
But mostly I pondered …
Perhaps the sound I was hearing wasn’t the wind rustling through the toys at all. Perhaps it was the sound of thousands of parental hearts sinking everywhere, as they mourn the death of the phrase … ‘money doesn’t grow on trees.’ Oh Kathy what have you done!
People’s Choice
Kevin Morgan, Mayor of the Town of Cottesloe also announced the winner of the Sculpture by the Sea People’s Choice Prize. It went to NSW artist collective Cave Urban for mengenang (memory). This was a large wind-blown installation of 222 bamboo ‘bird scarers’, each a musical instrument tuned to D-minor. It began as a reflection on the 222 lives lost in the Bali bombings. The Cave Urban collective is made up of architects and musicians, who at the moment are focusing on bamboo as an alternative building material. Their prize was $5,000 plus a chance to exhibit in Bondi.
‘Congratulations to Cave Urban and Kathy Allam,’ said David Handley, Founding director of Sculpture by the Sea.’ The talent in this years exhibition has been exceptional. A huge thanks to the people of Perth for their support of the exhibition as well as the artists who have made it possible.’
The exhibition once again drew a record crowd, no doubt thanks in part to two huge cruise ships in port during the exhibition. If you donated a gold coin you helped raise a much needed $30,000. If you were one of the 166 volunteers you helped man the event for 2,690 hours … time for a cuppa and a good lie down I’d say.
Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi is on Oct 24- Nov 10 and a sister exhibition will be held in Aarhus Denmark in June 2013.
