Ingrid Morley’s sculpture The Past Is Just Behind took home the Sculpture for Clyde Acquisitive Award. Photo: Ingrid Morley.
An award-winning sculpture has recently found a new home on the South Coast.
Ingrid Morley took home the fifth annual Sculpture for Clyde Acquisitive Award in May 2024, as well as the event’s $100,000 prize purse, with her sculpture The Past Is Just Behind.
“It’s really been life-changing, because it’s one of the biggest works [I have made] …. this is the one that’s probably closest to my heart,” Ms Morley told Region.
Her win means it will remain in Batemans Bay as part of its Sculpture Walk, alongside other winning works.
Creating The Past is Just Behind was a cathartic experience for Ms Morley, who was recovering from losing her home and studio to a bushfire in 2019 and the death of a close friend shortly after.
“What it does is it talks to grief, but hope that comes out of grief [and] the passage between the stages of grief,” she said.
She said people could walk through the arched arm of the sculpture, a representation of how people “transcend, if you like, or move through” chaotic emotions.
“Grief holds you in its grip. You can’t move forward and you can’t move back,” she said.
“[The sculpture] to me is all about being able to see through that time of grief and difficulty and getting to the hope on the other side of it.”
Ms Morley and partner Brian Sinclair in front of her work in 2024. Photo: Supplied.
Ms Morley’s sculpture joins the more than two dozen sculptures donated by Sculpture for Clyde to the Sculpture Walk.
“[The Sculpture Walk] is a great vision for that area of Batemans Bay, because it will draw people to the Bay,” she said.
“People can get out of their car, they’re in a beautiful part of the world … there’s a magnificent opportunity to have a walk that’s relatively short or go on a longer walk that’s all around the foreshore to the bridge and back again,” she said.
“It offers an opportunity to really do something with your day and is something for your eye to enjoy.”
Sculpture for Clyde’s David Maclachlan said The Past Is Just Behind broadens “diversity” of the Sculpture Walk, which runs along the Clyde River.
“People like it. I think it’s really complementary to the other sculptures that are out that way,” he said.
“They’re so different – there’s Weed [by Richard Moffat], there’s Fracture 2 [by David Ball], then there’s Dance [by Haruyuki Uchida] and then Pelicant [by Jesse Graham] on the end.
“They’re really so different, which is great … It’s not like you a look at a couple of the sculptures and think you’ve seen them all before.”
The annual art festival’s 2025 outing was cancelled earlier this year, with organisers citing financial difficulties, though Mr Maclachlan said the volunteers behind the festival were planning for a return in 2026.
He also said supporting regional artists and regional art events was crucial, with community support key to raising the award’s prize money.
“For a regional area, that’s unprecedented,” he said of the total.
“We’ll keep going … we are punching way above our weight.”
People can follow Sculpture for Clyde’s Facebook page or the event’s website for updates.
