DRIVERS heading towards the Mornington Peninsula on Peninsula Link will now pass the pearly gates to get there,
A new sculpture, titled Peninsula Pearls, has been installed alongside the road at the Skye Road exit. The artwork, by dutch-born local sculptor Manon van Kouswijk, features a giant pearl chain and beaded necklace, with more than thirty spheres suspended in the air.
Ms van Kouswijk said that the sculpture “suggests the wearing of jewellery as a transient experience; the object disintegrates as one drives past. The varied views of the beaded sculpture open up a space for multiple associations, from funfair and Ferris wheel to pins on a map and a molecular model.”
“My proposition for this sculpture is that the Peninsula Link will be wearing one of my works for four years; my sculpture will temporarily adorn the freeway. However, in this scenario it is not the wearer who is moving with the piece or the jewellery moving with the wearer. Rather, the audience moves past the object,” she said.
The sculpture replaces Michael Riddle’s piece Iconoclast. The sculptures along the road are provided as part of a partnership between Southern Way and McClelland Sculpture Park, which will see 14 works displayed four years at a time until 2037. After four years the artworks are moved to McClelland’s sculpture park.
Peninsula Pearls was created by Manon van Kouswijk with support from Monash Art Projects (MAP) and Monash University and was fabricated by Robert Hook and installed by JK Fasham.