ARTWORK’S NEW LIFE
Councillors vote to unfurl contentious artwork
THE controversial silver ferns art sculpture, which cost taxpayers almost $430,000 and was put in storage after a community backlash, is to be installed at a secret Gold Coast site.
The Bulletin understands the four 11m metal structures will be removed from a council warehouse and installed near the Nobby Beach shopping precinct, on the beach side of the Gold Coast Hwy.
THE controversial silver ferns art sculpture, which cost taxpayers almost $430,000 and was put in storage after a community backlash, is to be installed at a secret Gold Coast site.
A report to council confirms councillors have met in a closed session, discussed a confidential report and supported a new location “subject to endorsement by local traders”.
The Bulletin understands the four 11m metal structures will be removed from a council warehouse and installed near the Nobby Beach shopping precinct, on the beach side of the Gold Coast Hwy.
The council has declined to comment because “the report remains confidential at this time”.
A council insider recalls how a competition was organised for a light rail art piece in 2013 and that “the art committee” and councillors backed the choice of the ferns.
“The councillors were in the lunch room,” the insider said. “They were all laughing about them being New Zealand ferns. Five minutes later the councillors voted and there was a majority vote.
“They were to go at the entrance of Chevron Island, the entrance to HOTA. And then it was the Esplanade (in Surfers Paradise) but everyone complained about them. “Now they (the councillors) are talking about taking them down to the Magic Mountain at Nobby Beach.”
The Urban Oasis public art commission was started in 2013 when the government provided almost $411,000 to the council to develop “public art outcomes along the light rail corridor”.
The original site was the intersection of Surfers Paradise Blvd and Elkorn Ave.
The council obtained $330,000 from the government, provided almost $81,000 for operation costs and another $17,500 from local area works.
The artwork was created by Irish artist Alex Pentek but there was an outcry about the expenditure when the ferns were unveiled in June, 2016.
About 87 per cent of readers in a Bulletin poll said the artwork was not a good use of public money and likened the ferns to the symbol used by the New Zealand All Blacks.
Responding to the criticism, Surfers Paradise councillor Gary Baildon said: “I think the Kiwis will love it. Time will tell whether it was the right decision. I think the majority will like it.”
At a meeting in June last year, councillors voted to move the ferns from Surfers Paradise to the Botanic Gardens at Benowa.
The decision to use the ferns as a feature statement was based on the Coast’s “ancient botanical record and early city officer input to the artist”.
But at this month’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee, the minutes show Councillor Hermann Vorster moved a recommendation that was backed by Cr Baildon.
Southport-based councillor Dawn Crichlow asked that her vote be recorded in the negative as a majority of councillors backed the new location.