STEM in Public Art
Key Idea 2: Structure and Function

Key Themes: Prolific Female Public Artist; Modernist Sculpture

Key STEM dimensions: Structure and Function, Models and Modelling
The structure of this sculpture demonstrates what was, at the time, an innovative sculpting approach by a female artist. Its form was modelled using industrial fabrication methods that reflect the technology of the twentieth century.    

Artwork context
Inge King (1915-2016) was one of Australia’s most prolific public artists. King was known for her formalist sculpture and has several large-scale artworks situated throughout Melbourne including at The University of Melbourne and Heide Museum of Modern Art. Significantly, King is one of the few female artists to have prominent public artworks in Melbourne. One reason for this would be the values and ideas that dominated Australian society during King’s lifetime. Social values and ideas during King’s career overwhelmingly sought to keep women at home to look after families and maintain households. Few women were able to sustain careers as artists, while art made by women was frequently considered to be less serious than art made by men. King defied these social conditions in producing Forward Surge, now arguably the most prominently positioned, large-scale, widely recognised and best-loved public artwork in Melbourne.

In 2018, Forward Surge was classified by the National Trust of Victoria. The classification means that the sculpture has been recognised as culturally significant at the highest level and will now be protected from destructive alteration, relocation or degradation.

Forward Surge can be described as a modernist artwork for three key reasons. Firstly, due to the absence of the artist’s hand. Traditionally the sign of the artist’s hand was upheld as a feature of high-quality artworks. Value was placed on details such as brush strokes in a painting or the line in a drawing, whereas here King’s ‘hand’ is unseen. Secondly, modernist artwork sought to reflect the technological advances of the twentieth century. That can be seen here in the industrial fabrication methods used to produce the sculpture. Thirdly, rather than aiming for realism or naturalism, it is abstract representation of its subject, waves. The rippled surface of seawater is replaced by the flat surface of rolled steel and the torn, spraying lip of a wave is substituted with an even, straight edge.

Inquiry questions

• Choose five words to describe this artwork. Consider words to describe the visual appearance, form and how the work makes you feel. 
• Considering its large scale and the fact you can shelter under Forward Surge, can it be described as architecture?
• Analyse how Forward Surge creates relationships between itself and members of the public. How does the sculpture influence how people move in and through the space?

Activity
Create your own 3D organic waveforms using paper. Experiment with folding and curving paper to create wave designs which can stay upright without adhesives or additional materials. Design 5 different forms, using a range of strategies for the sculptures to stay upright. 

1. Predict which of your sculptures is the strongest.
2. Create an experiment to identify which design is the strongest. 
3. Consider the impact of wind or human pressure, forces that might impact a work of public art. How can you model and test one of these forces on your card sculptures? Redesign your experiment to test and compare, documenting the results.

STEM dimensions in this activity
Structure and function – the folding and curving of paper to make organic wave forms.
Models and modelling – modelling and testing forces on card sculptures

Inge King STEM Victorian Curriculum Link

Key themes: Cultural practice, Aboriginal sovereignty, collaborative practice

Key STEM dimensions: Relationships, Models and Modelling, Structure and Function
The continual presence of Aboriginal people is represented in this artwork which expresses relationships connected to ancestors, spirit and the law of the land. It is structured in the form of a vessel that has been modelled in cast iron to represent a possum skin cloak. 

Artwork context
Vicki Couzens is a member of the Keerray Wooroong language group of the Gunditjmara of Western Victoria, born in 1960 in Warrnambool where she lives and works today.

Couzens has an interdisciplinary practice, working across painting, installation, visual arts, printmaking, mixed media, performing arts, language, ceremony and teaching. She is best known for her central role in the revival of the possum skin cloak-making tradition which began in Victoria and is now established across south-eastern Australia.

Situated within the open forecourt of RMIT’s Bowen Street Campus, Wurrunggi Biik – Law of the Land was created as a vessel to conjure Bundjil the Great Creator Spirit inside a towering possum skin cloak, “[w]atching over the Country and making sure that things are OK,” as Couzens says. It represents the continuous presence of Aboriginal people, Ancestors, Spirit and the Law of the Land. Made from cast iron, the cloak sits 2.4 metres tall. It implies the presence of a wearer and evokes a sense of the spiritual. The work also features an imprint of the wedge-tail eagle-shaped spirit memory on the ground beside the work. Couzens fabricated the work in collaboration with Jeph Neale and Hilary Jackman, with a range of expertise and skill sets allowing them to capture the tactile form of the possum skin cloak in solid iron. Neale deliberately activated the rusting process to create a rust-coloured finish (patina), referencing the earth, possum skins and iron.

A significant cultural item, the possum skin cloak speaks to both the object and the practices surrounding its creation and use. The fur cloak is used for warmth, sleeping, carrying babies, burial and ceremonies, while the markings on the inside skins tell the story of the wearer, their country and their people. These makings show maps, sacred places, food and animals and are etched with heat and ochre. Today possum skin cloak-making demonstrates a continuation of culture and in the sculptural form of Wurrunggi Biik acts as both a reminder of sovereignty and a blessing of protection to all who live, work and share this country.

“It was a call from the Ancestors to re-awaken the songlines of Possum Cloak Story, to return the cloaks to our People, to reclaim, regenerate, revitalise and remember – that is the Old Peoples’ story and our journey is to carry this vision forward…”  Vicki Couzens 

 Inquiry questions

• How do you think a work like this was made? 
• Why do you think the artist chose to work in cast iron?
• Would you describe this work as sculptural, memorial or commemorative? 

Activity

1. Research the manufacturing process for cast iron equipment or sculptures. Consider and explain some of the chemical properties of this material, using the words metal, compound, alloy, mixture and particles.
2. Infer and imagine how Vicki Couzens created her sculpture, considering the possum skin design as well as the solid iron sculpture. 
3. Experiment with the casting process. Model the process by creating an imprint in plasticine and pour in home-made ‘plaster of paris’. 
4. Use learnings from your experiment and your inferences to create a diagram showing a step by step process to fabricate the sculpture. Add labels to indicate materials, equipment, environment or surroundings, risks and key processes.

Extension
Research innovative iron or steel fabrication processes, such as 3D printing. Propose an alternative system to create a similar sculpture, outlining benefits and challenges such as cost and environmental impact. 

STEM dimensions in this activity
Structure and form – imagining how the artist created the solid iron structure.
Models and modelling – replicating and testing fabrication process

Vicki Couzens STEM Victoria Curriculum Links

Key Themes: Architecture, text, politics, collaboration

Key STEM dimensions: Structure and function, systems, models and modelling, pattern, measurement and data
The modelled perforated metal screen cladding is placed across the structure of a building. The metal forms a pattern such that the pattern of the cladding appears pixelated. The scale and function of the text painted over the cladding changes not only the social and economic role of the site (the Queen Victoria Market) but changes our relationship to this familiar site that brings people and families together. 

Artwork context
Rose Nolan lives and works in Melbourne. Nolan’s artworks are largely text-based, inviting the viewer to question her message and medium. The scale of her work reg­u­lar­ly oscil­lates between the dis­crete and the mon­u­men­tal and encompasses paint­ing, site-specific instal­la­tions, large-scale sculp­tures, printmaking and book pro­duc­tion. Her works are sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent. Nolan’s practice is informed by a strong interest in architecture, inte­ri­or design and graph­ic design and has been influenced by modernism and utilitarian design, reflected in her use of ‘cheap’ easily accessible materials such as hessian, foam core and cardboard.

Nolan has an ongoing interest in the complexity of the art object with attention to process, materials, scale, content, history. She is interested in how the work can both transform and be transformed by the context in which it is situated – be it the architectural site, social or cultural context. The process and meaning of such transformations are activated through each artwork’s relationship to the viewer in time and space.

In the development of Screen Works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) Nolan worked collaboratively with City of Melbourne, Six Degrees Architects and PDG Corporation to integrate this site responsive, public artwork into the 10-storey building’s design. The artwork references Queen Victoria Market’s role in social and economic exchange. 

Nolan’s stylised text in Screen Works appears pixelated as red and white coloured squares on the outside of the building cladding, stretching the height and breadth of the building, visible from hundreds of metres away. By enlarging and abstracting letters through pixelation, Nolan blurs the line between text and image. The distortion of text at this scale slows viewers’ understanding of each word, extending the time spent deciphering the installation and creating space for contemplation of the artist’s intentions. 

Since the late 1990s Nolan has consistently limited her palette to red and white in reference to diverse cultural influences including white monochrome political banners, Russian revolutionary art and the aesthetics of advertising. Historically the colour red is associated with socialism and white with ideas of liberation. Nolan has been using these colours for much of her career; the meaning of her works changes depending on the time, social and political context in which they are viewed. 

Inquiry questions:

•     What message do you think the artist is intending to communicate through this work? 
•     What do the colours white and red mean to you?
•     How does the artwork’s meaning change if the colours change? Propose your own colour scheme and consider the impact on meaning. 
•     How does the scale of the artwork contribute to its impact on viewers?

Activity

Source a photo of a famous building, choosing a photo that shows two sides of the building and highlights perspective. Choose a phrase or a couple of words that have meaning for you that you would like to include in your design.

Using grid paper, design text to cover the building. Your design is limited to two colours, and each grid square can only be one of two colours. Consider messages, audiences and their use of the building or space.

Use tracing paper to mark out a perspective grid on your photo, a technique to help create a linear perspective drawing.

Now experiment with transferring your text design onto the tracing paper so that it follows the perspective and architectural features of the building. Multiply or divide your grid to scale your design up or down to best fit the photo.

This activity can be adapted using software such as SketchUp or Photoshop, experimenting in Minecraft, or folding your grid paper to create 3D maquettes of the building.

STEM dimensions in this activity
Relationships – considering an audience for their building space.
Measurement and data – multiply or divide a grid to scale a design to fit a photograph
Systems – use of a software to design text that follows the perspective and architectural features of the building.

Rose Nolan STEM Victorian Curriculum Links