Sculpture by the Sea Cottesloe 2018

19 March 2018 | by Robyn Benken

Glinting Rock, Swirling Fish, Subtle Fossils, Hidden Seed, Feral Cats and Cockatoos.

Up to 20 Volunteers from Cottesloe Coastcare have been selling Catalogues for the past thirteen years at the Annual Exhibition of Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe. It is a spectacular display of over 70 Australian and International artworks allowing intimate, close-up experiences – most of the sculptures can be touched, several can be entered and some reflect the viewer in multiple, magic ways. This year strong environmental messages were manifest: 20 cleverly constructed kites in the form of our threatened Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos were flown as ‘flash mobs’ in the large space before a semi-circular wall of 72 curved, reflecting mirrors.

You can see the black cockatoo kites in this photo. Also CCA’s project site with good local vegetation in the background!

Chris Greenwood and the Carnaby’s Cockatoo Action Group kite ‘flash mob’

Incredibly life like black feral cats roamed under a tree in the grass raising awareness of a disaster of our own making.

Mikaela Castledine, 15 Feral Cats

Subtle fossils in sandstone from a petrified Indian sea bed, evoked our ancient past, also an enigmatic seed embedded in chicken wire.

‘Seed’ by Sally Stoneman

Close up of ancient sandstone from India with tiny marine fossils

Harsha Vardhan Durugadda’s ‘Fish Love’

Our continuous rebirth and mesmerising colourful fish swirling inside a steel dome our marine magic.

Swirling Around by B. Jane Cowie

An insider view of ‘Swirling Around’

Tourism WA invited the celebrated conceptual Chinese artist Zhan Wang to create his sensational Floating Rock made from stainless steel coated in chrome. Its highly textured, scintillating surface lured swimmers out into our bay for closer encounters with this fascinating mystery.

By volunteering for the immensely popular community event (over 200,000 visitors come every year to Cottesloe during the three weeks of the exhibition), Cottesloe Coastcarers contribute in kind to the funding so that it can be free for all to see. We love being part of it so much that we have become known as the smiling, cheerful local faces to the visiting public.

And throughout the year at all our functions and events we serve the wine donated to us for our efforts.

(Text Frauke Chambers, photos Robyn Benken)