Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition
May 2013
The most innovative and important annual event to take place in Toorak Village – The Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition – has been linking the arts with business and forming a unique cultural experience for the last 12 years.
With contemporary sculptural works decorating the shop windows and sidewalks of Toorak Road during the entire month of May and first two weeks of June, the event sees over 90 Australia-wide artists displaying their artworks, complementing the four already-permanent sculptures purchased by the Toorak Village businesses from previous shows.
While three winners were presented with their official awards at the Opening Event last month, exhibition director Tony Fialides claims the judging process has been a very difficult one considering the subjective nature of art.
“Believe me, the judges absolutely agonise over it, they really take their time to think about it,” he says. “When it comes to art, the word ‘winner’ is a tough one because the sculptures are so subjective. It’s not just about three prizes or three winners – every artist has a chance of selling their work over a period of six weeks so, actually, everybody has a good opportunity to get exhibit their work and sell it. It’s just terrific.
“Originally this event was spawned to promote the Village but now it’s two-way because it also promotes the artists. As any artist would know, it can be so hard to get an opportunity to show your work until you get established, though we have also helped established artists, too. Every year we hope to raise enough money to buy a piece of art, which is another plus for the artist, because if you’re exhibiting on the street there is a good chance Toorak Village traders may ask to buy your piece from you.”
Taking on the difficult task of judging the sculptures this year was artist, designer and arts educator, Carlo Pagoda. Timothea Jewell won the City of Stonnington and Bank of Melbourne Award for her sculpture, ‘Clasp’, while Brigit Heller won the Toorak Village Traders Award for her work, ‘Adrift’, with Jason Christopher winning the Leonard Joel Award for his piece, ‘Colonial Bunyip’. According to exhibition curator Malcolm Thomson (of the Australian Academy of Design), this year’s Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition has been another surprising and innovative one.
“This year the selection process was a difficult one due to, first, the volume of entries and, secondly, the high quality presented by the artists. Ninety artists and their sculptures have been selected. Visiting many artists in their studios is exciting and brings great pleasure to myself in being privileged to see the artist in their space, to see works in the process of being made and to spend time talking to them. It continually amazes me how some artists manage to work in such confined spaces with some of the most basic equipment and produce such high quality work.
“It is always difficult to single out individual artists in an exhibition in which so many are exhibited. In 2013 Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition once again brings new surprises, materials, concepts and ideas to the public. Its popularity and its acceptance by both traders and artists is good reason to be satisfied with future developments and the opportunities it brings to new and established sculptors.”
Toorak Village is between Wallace Ave and Grange Road, just east of Williams Road, simply catch the No 8 Tram from Federation Square, along Toorak Road to stop no 35.
toorakvillage.com.au
Images:
1. Ivan Lovatt. Sir Edmund Hillary.
2. Timothea Jewell. Clasp
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