Art with a heart wins award
Come out, come out, where ever you - a breathtaking sculpture of four critically endangered species - are by Gillie and Marc Schattner, was admired by hoards of crowds, culminating in the monumental public art doyens winning the 2018 Allen's Peoples Choice Award for Sculptures by the Sea.
FOUR bronze beauties on the brink of extinction stomped over to the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk.
Taking up prime position on the wind-flattened, crisp green lawn, the unlikely foursome – a rhinoceros, elephant, hippopotamus and tiger – were spotted emerging from heavy access chambers wedded to the grass during this year’s two-week stint of Sculptures by the Sea.
Intricately detailed in design, the striking public art installation created and aptly titled Come out, come out, where ever you are by Gillie and Marc Schattner, was admired by hoards of crowds, culminating in the monumental public art doyens winning the 2018 Allen’s Peoples Choice Award for Sculptures by the Sea.
Creating eye-catching and bold bodies of work with incredible skill, the Schattners strive to heal the animal world through sculptural form.
“All the work we do is very much conservation related,” Marc told The AJN. “Most animals due to deforestation have now gone into hiding and we want to welcome them back into the world where they are free from poaching and habitat loss.
“The public understand this and are now supporting conservation themselves.”
“Sculptures by the Sea is for the public to get behind and enjoy art, and we are so grateful and honoured to win the award,” commented Gillie.
According to Marc, the orangutan population has halved in the last ten years, and while habitat loss is a more passive way of decreasing the population than poaching, the former still tears through the animal species, wreaking havoc on the natural order of the world.
“All these governments are complicit in doing the same thing just by knocking down the rainforests,” concurred Gillie.
In 2016, the Schattners took home the same Sculptures by the Sea award for Shandu, The Buried Rhino, which also won the Kids’ Choice Award that year.
Currently working on Love the Lost – a four-year project that brings critically endangered species to urban landscapes, the power couple are working to ensure that everyone can connect with these creatures, before it’s too late.
“We are spending the next four years trying to study endangered species,” said Gillie. “Then we make monumental sculptures to seek public support.”
Blown away by the sheer size and magnificence of the northern white rhinos that Gillie and Marc visited in Kenya last year, only two of which remain – female northern white rhinos, Najin and Fatu – the artists will be unveiling their sculpture of the last two at St Kilda beach next February.
SOPHIE DEUTSCH
comments