A Photo Every Day from the Sunshine Coast - Australia

Monday 1 September 2008

Sister City Sculpture


Today's monthly theme is "Sister City", but with our town in some disarray after the recent merge of local authorities, rather than a picture of our Sister City, to best explain the sculpture, I'll quote directly from journalist Sam Benger published in the Sunshine Coast Daily Newspaper on the 12th June.


"It's a bird, it’s a plane ... it’s a flying bronze sculpture.

A swan song to the Maroochy Shire was unveiled at Nelson Park at Alexandra Headland yesterday – a $130,000 bronze sculpture representing the area’s emblem, the black swan, ready to take flight next to an egret, the emblem of Maroochy’s sister city in China, Xiamen.

After three years of planning and controversy surrounding the cost of the project, the final product, weighing a massive 1.5 tonnes, was lifted into place by a crane yesterday.

Local Kenilworth artists Elli Schlunke and Tony Reay had a hand in the creation of the sculpture, which was constructed by Chinese artist Min Yi Ming.

“The idea of it was to use both cities’ emblems as a way of connecting the two, and for that reason we’ve called it 'sisters by choice',” Elli said.

“In some ways it has lost a bit of its significance now that the three councils have merged, but it’s also a record of part of that history of the area and of an era that has just finished.”

Former Maroochy Shire Mayor Joe Natoli, who championed the project after a similar sculpture was unveiled in Xiamen last year, defended the cost of the artwork and said at the time the statue was cheaper than the one in China and would be an outstanding piece of artwork for the Coast.

Tony said originally the statue was to go in the water, but due to its size – the swan has a wingspan of 6.3m while the egret stands 3.4m high – it was decided the statue would take pride of place on a small island situated in the centre of the park.

Chinese artist Min Yi Ming said it took almost a year to create the sculpture, which was constructed by placing bronze sheets over a steel frame and belting them into shape."


148 other photo blogs are publishing photographs from their sister cities today, click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Nelson Park

Alexandra Headland
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8 comments

Shantaram said...

That's a nice photo - surprisingly, coincidentally, the two cities in Australia (Sydney is the other one) that I've seen so far have both posted sculptures (and no one else seems to have).

Beautiful!
Shantaram

USelaine said...

I very much like the natural symbolism. I hope the town has accepted the expense as worthwhile. What prevents preserving the Sister relationship after the merger, I wonder.

Anonymous said...

I really like the two birds symbolising the two cities, the sculpture is wonderful.
Thanks for quoting the whole paper, it's an interesting story.

Julie said...

Hah - I like the fact that the statue of the swan was lifted into place by a crane!

Good take on the Theme ...

Jilly said...

What a beautiful sculpture. Love the way it symbolises the two cities. Great choice for today.

melanie said...

Très "chouette" cette sculpture, même si ces oies ne sont pas des chouettes !

Kim said...

It's sure a gracefully designed sculpture and a lovely monument to the relationship between the two areas. These ideas are so hard to express visually. I think the artist hit the mark.
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo

Jane Hards Photography said...

Art should be free from the constraintsof such nonsense. Beautiful image for today, and so glad you posted the info for us to understand the full story.

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