GARY DEIRMENDJIAN / SCULPTURE BY THE SEA AARHUS, DENMARK...

Gary Deirmendjian is currently exhibiting as part of the 2013 edition of Sculpture by the Sea Aarhus, Denmark. His work is a major site specific installation titled strata - tangkrogen. 

Crown Prince Frederick visits and discusses Gary Deirmendjian's work after opening Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus whilst mobs of people and media surround the work. Prince Frederick can be seen contributing to the work by throwing in a discarded baby pacifier.

The work is a major public installation consisting of collected and salvaged non organic household rubbish, cars, excavator, pallets of turf, mounds of earth and a solar powered transistor radio. Piled high within a pit measuring 10 meters square and over 5m in height, the site-specific works commanding presence has been garnering extensive local and media attention in Denmark, re-igniting that age old debate as to what constitutes art...

Named after the site on which it has been created, Tangkrogen is the region/parkland and event space along the harbour in Aarhus that was created many years ago by landfill. Created by collating junk from the local city dump, scrap yards and the surrounding streets, the contents of  strata - tangkrogen  have come directly from the lives of local Aarhus residents. The square of the pit is aligned with the global axis (ie N.E.W.S.) and not with the urban geometry of the site, whilst the transistor radio is set in real time to a local talk-back channel.

In the artists own words: "The pit holds bare the actualities of our ways … stuff ... owned and thrown ... all now of equal value ... unprejudiced worthlessness of cost and consequence. 

Our collective behavior in having become passive mass consumers, appears to have been teased and ushered ... oh so very very slowly. 

The momentum of mass consumption does surely drive mass production while generating mass disposal in its wake. Neither production nor disposal can possibly come free of any consequence."

Gary Deirmendjian has also previously exhibited as part of Sculpture by the Sea Aarhus in 2011 when he produced a site specific work entitled consumer temple - aarhus, which addressed similar themes and concerns as strata - tangkrogen. 

Sculpture by the Sea Aarhus, Denmark runs from June 1 - 30, 2013.

Bruce Reynolds wins a 2011 CCAA Public Domain Award...

Congratulations to Bruce Reynolds, winner of one of the 2011 CCAA Public Domain Awards - national awards for excellence in concrete to enhance the public domain.

Entered by – Cox Rayner Architects

Client – Queensland Government, Department of Justice and Attorney General

Architect – ABM Cox Rayner Architects

Landscape Architect – Tract

Consultants - Artist – Bruce Reynolds

Principal Contractor – Abigroup

Principal Engineer – Robert Bird Group

Main Concrete Supplier – Boral

Overview

The Ipswich Justice Precinct comprises a courthouse serving both District and Magistrates courts, and a police station. The brief required the police station to be independently identifiable while also forming part of the precinct.

The design strategy was to create a courtyard on the street front to wrap the courthouse around two edges and the police station around the other, the courtyard forming the fulcrum of activity.

The choice of pre-coloured concrete as the primary building material was made because of its adaptability to meet different planning layouts at each level, including slightly different sizes plates. A second purpose was to relate the buildings to a city renowned for its masonry civic buildings and churches, without resorting to obvious copy of their materials. As an essentially raw material, concrete was also bchosen for its compatibility with a palette of other raw materials, particularly timber.

Insitu rather than precast was chosen because the design did not generate the repetition suited to the latter. The design team also preferred the imperfect character of insitu concrete, optimising its plasticity to envelop spaces, define

certain functions and create tactility.

Judges Comments

The impressive integration of site-specific artwork and concrete construction for the suite of external walls in this project creates a setting that adds strength and depth to the public domain in Ipswich and confidence in contemporary civic institutions. A masterful demonstration of how creative narrative power and technical expertise in construction can work together in a public project.

Judged by:

Professor Catherin Bull, Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne, Adjunct Professor at QUT.

Professor Philip Follent, Head of School, Soheil Abedian School of Architecture Bond University.

Tony Blackwell, Managing Director, Landscape bArchitect and Urban Designer, Blackwell & Associates.