The Bend
Date: 2019
Artists: Laura Wills, Will Cheesman and Mark Timberlake.
Materials: Mild steel, recycles jetty timber, paint. 5.1m x 3.5m x 0.46m.
A meander in a river, a meeting place. The bend in the Onkaparinga river, where Sauerbier House is located has become the artwork. Bringing river to the land this work is about gathering as a diverse community at a special place.
Dimensions variable
Artists website: https://www.willsprojects.net.au/
@ laurafranceswills
Words from Artist Team:
The Bend
A meander in a river, a meeting place.
The Bend brings river to the land. It is about gathering together as a diverse community at a special place. It is a celebration of creativity, old stories and new ideas.
The bend in the Onkaparinga River, where Sauerbier House is located has become the artwork. Tracing the shape of this bend at high tide creates the main form of the sculpture. The river is reproduced in steel and stands as a shelter or a gateway. It’s connection to the ground is both extended and softened by careful planting of native grasses. Amongst the grasses below the bend a series of smaller sculptures gather. They represent the community of people in the town and organisms in the river. These Gathering polymorphous shapes, reflect the importance of the tiny unseen creatures that are an integral part of the health and life of the river, representing the essence of connectivity and social strength. The steel front and back face of the bend become a 'canvas'. Upon this canvas a series of textural patterns and images will be cut. Sunlight will illuminate them in the day, and at night the sculpture becomes a lantern with a recessed solar light. From a distance is the large natural form of The Bend, and up close there is much detail to explore and characters to meet.
The 2 patterns facing the road depict the salt and fresh water meeting and mixing daily in the tidal estuary of the river. The other side depicts local fish species meeting- a fresh water species bream and salt water species mullet.