Work: Crossing
Year: 2008
Construction: Nylon lei
Description:
Gaye Jurisich’s Inlei provides a series of encounters for visitors to the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. Initially it can be glimpsed as a hint of colour in the distance which gradually emerges as an artwork as one approaches it. Beyond this, in more sculptural terms, the artist’s intention with Inlei is to provide a new view of sculpture in the landscape, using the ground as an active contributor.
Up close there is an element of ambiguity in this strange but familiar looking trench filled with flowers. The work looks exactly like a flowered grave that has been dug into the ground; it is almost two metres long and a metre wide. Jurisich intended that the work would trigger memories of grave-side burials. The powerful emotions and memories of loss and grief that it evokes are counteracted by the bright colours of the lei, colours that speak of joy and beauty, lei that resound with cultural significance in our multi cultural community.
Beyond the initial response to the colourful work and recognition of its form, Jurisich intended Inlei to raise consciousness and to generate questions. Whose ‘plot’ might this be? Who is this site prepared for? Are such pretty plots just for someone else? What plans have we made for the future? Do we fit the defined bounds of sites that are dug for us? Do we have to lie in beds of our own making? The work is intended to challenge viewers and provide opportunity for dialogue about culture, place, history and the future, life and death. Almost eerily this temporary work will have a memory. After it is removed there will be a visual reminder of its physical place in the ground; the grass will show signs of this installation long after it has gone. In this work, art mirrors life
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