14 March 2023

New Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail installations turn rock into art and art on its head

| Edwina Mason
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Heads It Is, by Western Australia’s Paul Caporn, is one of the latest additions to the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail. It has to be seen to be believed and Cafe Nest in Tumbarumba is where it’s sited. Photo: Sculpture by the Sea.

Two new sculptures from respected Australian and international artists have been unveiled on the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, bringing the number of works in the permanent public collection to 30 from 10 countries.

The Family, by Austrian artist Andreas Buisman, joins the collection of works at Courabyra Wines, while Heads It Is, by leading West Australian artist Paul Caporn, is displayed on the lawns of Cafe Nest in Tumbarumba.

Founding CEO and artistic director of Sculpture by the Sea and the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, David Handley, says with every new sculpture, the collection changes and takes on different characteristics.

“Paul Caporn’s sculpture is wonderfully comical, and the first absurdist artwork in the collection, while Andreas Buisman’s sculpture adds to the tactile and stunning stone sculptures from Adelong to Tooma,” he said.

Buisman splits his time between Austria and Australia, collecting basalt and granite rocks and transforming them into artworks.

The Family consists of three separate pieces that Buisman has polished, cleaned and transformed while respecting the given form of the basalt, and ultimately revealing their hidden identity.

Caporn, based in Perth, is one of Australia’s most respected sculptors.

Heads It Is is described as an unmonumental monument, pointing to the idea that the way we memorialise and celebrate our great moments and people in recent history requires a rethink in current times.

The sculpture was part of Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2022.

sculpture

The Family consists of three separate pieces of basalt that Austrian sculptor Andreas Buisman has polished, cleaned and transformed while respecting the given form of the stone but ultimately revealing their hidden identity. This sculpture has been installed at Courabyra Wines near Tumbarumba. Photo: Andreas Buisman.

Buisman and Caporn travelled to Tumbarumba to unveil their works last month and, with that, came the unveiling of a plaque, in Tumbarumba creekscape, commemorating the visit of the Friendship Society of Denmark, Australia and New Zealand president Hanne Bache.

This group funded the first three sculptures installed in Tumbarumba as part of the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail as a gesture of international friendship in response to the Black Summer bushfires.

The Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, which launched in May 2022, is a permanent and growing world-class public collection by renowned artists from across Australia and the world.

READ ALSO The farmer, the author and the barbed-wire Elvis sculpture

Showcased in collections across seven locations in the towns of Adelong, Batlow and Tumbarumba, the hamlet of Tooma and the Tumbarumba wine region cellar doors at Courabyra Wines, Johansen Wines and Obsession Wines, the trail stretches over 100 kilometres.

This is complemented by Shop Art Projects whereby leased shopfronts in Batlow and Tumbarumba have been given over to artists to install site-specific artworks to create another reason for people to visit the towns.

These artworks will change every three to six months.

The Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail was conceived in partnership with the local communities and the Sydney-based Sculpture by the Sea – the same team that each year presents Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe, WA and Bondi – to aid in the socioeconomic recovery of the Snowy Valleys after the 2019-2020 bushfires, and has been funded under the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, co-funded by the Australian and NSW governments.

Eighteen Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail artists are currently exhibiting at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2023, which runs until 20 March.

For example, Takeshi Tanabe’s work can be seen each evening of the exhibition with a striking two-kilometre beam of light piercing the sky at the end of the groyne at Cottesloe Beach.

You can also visit Takeshi’s work at Obsession Wines, Maragle, NSW.

The next sculptures on the Snowy Valleys trail will be installed during April and May in Batlow, Adelong and Tumbarumba.

The new works will take the collection to more than 35 sculptures and will be officially presented to the public during a Sculpture, Wine and Food Festival in late April.

SCULPTURE, FOOD & WINE LONG WEEKEND: 27-30 April, 2023

Explore the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail while enjoying the food and wine of this stunning region of southern NSW.

Highlights of the four-day weekend with ticketed and free events include:

27 APRIL
Viewing the sculptures at Courabyra Wines, followed by lunch with matching wines.

28 APRIL
An evening among the sculptures at Johansen Wines.

29 APRIL
The Riverina Light Horse Troop joining the tour of the sculptures along Adelong Creek Walk/
Paddock-to-Plate Dinner at Cafe Nest in Tumbarumba.

30 APRIL
Unveiling of four new sculptures in the collection.

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