The media was awash on Tuesday with a tidal wave of opinions and droll commentary on a large-scale public artwork planned for the Sydney CBD.
But spare a thought for the artists – they may well be taken aback by the reactions.
Patricia Piccinini, for one, knows all too well how hard it is to be an artist without irony in this day and age.
The Canberra-born artist behind the infamous Skywhale says it’s difficult not to be hurt when people criticise – nay, openly mock – your work.
But that’s exactly what happened when her $300,000 hot-air balloon sculpture, commissioned to mark Canberra’s centenary, was unveiled to the public in May 2013.
And more than a year later, Piccinini says she is still surprised by the reaction to the massive, mythical sky-borne beast.
“To be honest, I always imagine people have the same responses as me to my work, and I always think that they’ll instantly fall in love with the work, and I’m always shocked to find that people don’t love her as much as I do,” she said.
She said the work, far from being intended to provoke, was in fact a meditation on the natural world, and how our ecological system is changing.
“If you look at something like a walrus, that’s a really strange creature. I mean honestly, it’s extraordinary,” she said.
“Real nature is much more extraordinary and amazing than anything I could come up with. I don’t feel that I’m coming up with something just to offend people, but I am talking about ideas to do with difference, and how we relate to difference and how we see the animals and the nature around us that we change for our benefit.”
But she was surprised and despondent when debate was instead raging about the cost of the work, and although her husband suggested she refrain from reading the media commentary, she couldn’t help it.
“There’s no irony in my work at all, I’m completely sincere, and that’s not an easy way to be in this world, because when people shut you down, it hurts,” she said.
“I just thought, so much work has gone into this, two-and-a-half years of my life, and it’s a project that really fits in well with my practice, a 20-year practice talking about ideas that are really relevant and contemporary – what’s not to like?”
But luckily, in her many public appearances since, the Skywhale has been greeted with more enthusiasm, including at last weekend’s music festival Splendour in the Grass.
“I have to develop a pretty strong, tough skin, but I get boosts of affirmation when I go to places like Splendour, because then I think, they get it, this is their world,” she said.
“I think as time goes on and her life is becoming increasingly broader – she’s going overseas, she’s encountering different generations, really young people – I feel much better about everything and I’ve been able to forget those criticisms.”
