Southbank set to receive a “kangaroo on a chair”

By Sean Car

The new $2 million piece of public art set for Dodds St will be “a kangaroo on a chair wrapped in wire and lights,” according to a report in the Herald Sun this month.

In March 2018, Southbank was revealed as the lucky recipient of a series of four major public art commissions, with the first to come at a cost of $2 million.

City of Melbourne councillors endorsed plans to proceed with the first of the four commissions at its council meeting on February 27, 2018, which will be installed in Dodds St as part of the transformation of Southbank Boulevard.

And while the details of the public art commission have since remained a secret, according to a report on April 6 in the Herald Sun, the “gigantic” first sculpture is understood to be a “roo on a chair” by a New Zealand artist.

But the City of Melbourne has remained tight-lipped on the project, telling Southbank News that the artwork in question would be “unveiled at a later date”.

“In 2017, the City of Melbourne commissioned a destination public artwork for Melbourne. The Southbank Public Art Project is to be delivered in multiple stages. The City of Melbourne has committed $2 million for the first stage of the project,” a council spokesperson said. “The artwork, which will be unveiled at a future date, will form part of the Victorian Government’s broader $1.4 billion transformation of Melbourne’s Art Precinct.”

“The independent selection panel included the most respected figures in Melbourne’s arts community and was chaired by NGV director Tony Ellwood.”

“A report by SGS Economics and Planning in February 2021 found a $1 million investment by the City of Melbourne in public art would generate an increase in visitation from interstate and overseas and subsequent tourist spending in the State of $4.2 million.”

“The creative economy accounts for 8 per cent of employment in the City of Melbourne.”

Boonwurrung Aboriginal elder Carolyn Briggs, who was consulted on the project, told the Herald Sun that she believed the works would form an amazing streetscape installation. 

“It will have a strong presence as an Indigenous story,” she said. “But it’s whimsical, it’s creative, it’s fun. I think people get sick of sadness all the time.”

Irish academic Vaari Claffey was engaged as a “public art strategist” to oversee the project in 2017, which will see a further three works produced for Southbank’s new public realm in the heart of the Arts Precinct •

Ms Claffey’s appointment followed an international search conducted by a Curatorial Advisory Group (CAG) consisting of representatives from the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).

A council report in 2018 stated: “in prioritising significant sites for public art in the immediate term, Southbank, Melbourne Metro, University Square and the QVM renewal programs were considered, with Southbank providing the most profound, imminent opportunity.”

In August 2017, Ms Claffey spent two weeks in Southbank undertaking primary research into the area and worked closely with Arts Melbourne and City Design Studio to inform her strategy for the precinct.