EAGLE SCULPTURE

"Eagle" is a beautiful sculpture standing 25 metres or about seven storeys high. It is by Bruce Armstrong, one of the most important sculptors currently working in Australia, and it was erected in May 2002.  The sculpture is also known as "Bunjil", which is the name the aboriginal Wurundjeri people use for the creator figure, who is an eagle.

The pediment is painted jarrah wood fixed on a steel frame, and the bird itself is cast aluminium which has been painted to resemble polychromed hardwood.  The enormous scale is what makes it so amazing and one cannot perhaps appreciate its vast size from a distance. You can see it from several different roads that go past the site, and I look at it every morning from the commuter train I ride. It's not meant to be seen or approached from ground level. If you do park the car somewhere and walk up to the base, its effect is lost, I think.

"Eagle" was commissioned for the Docklands precinct under the Docklands Authority's public art scheme, which requires all the half-dozen developers operating in the precinct to spend 1% of the capital cost of their projects on public art. The most recent estimate I saw was that sixty million dollars would eventually be spent this way - if the developers don't run out of sites first.


This post is part of Sylvia's Skywatch Friday meme.