‘A tease and a promise’: Colourful HOTA sculpture unveiled
A colourful new sculpture has been unveiled at the entrance to the HOTA art gallery, with the gallery's CEO saying it's a taste of what's to come. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SCULPTURE?
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A SIX-METRE-HIGH sculpture made of bronze, concrete, neon and fibreglass will dominate the entrance of the HOTA gallery when it opens in May.
The sculpture, created by Sydney-based Sri-Lankan artist Ramesh mario Nithiyendran, was commissioned to welcome visitors “with outstretched arms”.
HOTA CEO Criene Gehrke said the work’s unveiling was “both a tease and a promise” of the art to come.
“Today marks 12 months since HOTA was closed to the public due to COVID,” she said.
“In what has been an extraordinary and surreal year, today we’re delighted to announce how you can register for tickets for the opening weekend of the HOTA gallery.
“The City has been waiting for this moment for a long time and we can’t wait to throw open the doors to Gold Coasters.
“With all new works from Gold Coast artists indoors, art installations and live music from local bands outdoors, the HOTA Gallery opening weekend will be a real moment of celebration for the week.”
Art lovers can sign up via hota.com.au/firstinline for a special booking link to register for the gallery’s opening weekend.The HOTA gallery will open on May 8.
GIANT ART TOWER SCRAPPED FROM HOTA FINAL STAGE
A GIANT colourful “art tower” set to become the centrepiece of the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) has been dumped.
Gold Coast City Council staff developing the third and final stage of the city’s cultural precinct have removed the proposed high-rise from its plan after it was determined to no longer be necessary.
Bulletin readers immediately weighed in.
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“A cultural wasteland, you must be joking,” John W wrote.
“Obviously these culture starved Victorians haven’t bothered to visit our public art on display in the middle of the freeway at Yatala. Which by the way is made all the more attractive by the concentric black rubber circles that members of the public refresh at very regular intervals.”
Christ added: “The wrapping may be important but so too the contents. The recipe used by our thriving, local amateur alliance works it’s magic on a shoe-string with full houses each production.
“The demand is evident with the current, excellent Spotlight Theatre ‘Jersey Boys’ being a ticket sell-out before the season even opened. Hopefully, this year, HOTA will offer us a better mix so we don’t need to head to QOAC for cultural stimulus.”
RichardFF wrote: “At last Tate is getting the message, stop wasting ratepayers money. he’s cancelled the lollipop building but now says that the existing Arts Centre is going to be covered in the same garish colours as the new gallery building. This will make the HOTA look like a big children’s playground.”
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But Mayor Tom Tate says the next stage, which is currently unfunded, won’t need the giant colourful “fruit tingle” tower to become an international icon, vowing the project will offer “the biggest cultural explosion not just in the city’s history but in the history of culture in Australia”
“It will be a slap in the face for the people in Melbourne who used to come up to me and say ‘the Gold Coast is sun, sand and surf but I can’t live there because it’s a cultural desert’,” he said.
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“I say we are a desert no more, there is a cultural revolution happening here, with the final stage to feature an expansion and refurbishment of the existing arts centre.
“It sounds mundane but I know already that it will be the biggest wow factor of them all, I can guarantee it.”
It comes just a week after it was revealed the operating cost of HOTA would top $20 million this financial year, with the cost to increase to $32 million in 2021-22.
Details of HOTA’s final stage are expected to be unveiled in coming months once council staff complete the next round of designs.
Its is expected to see the existing arts centre building’s exterior revamped with a similar colour pattern as that featured on the $60 million art gallery tower which is due to open in April.
A giant public plaza at the front of the complex is also tipped.
Cr Tate was tight-lipped about what surprises will be included in the new arts centre but revealed there would be a new focus on a hi-tech ‘dig’ akin to the futuristic technology featured in television series Star Trek.
“I can tell you one element: there will be a mix of the latest digital technology which will immerse all your sense when you enter its halls,” he said.
It’s like Star Trek and its holodeck – this is going to be the holodeck on steroids
“Those Melburnians won’t be able to help themselves and will come up and check out our culture. It’s more outrageous, vibrant.
“It’s like the Gold Coast is Versace and everything else is off the rack.”
The council unveiled its $300 million cultural precinct masterplan in November 2013 with the 14-storey art tower, complete with its own rooftop bungee-jump platform, as the heart of the new-look Evandale.
It was initially expected to be built in time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games but was one of many council projects put off because it was forced to bear a greater portion of the event’s costs.
Cr Tate said the new-look arts centre would otherwise stick closely to the original 2013 plan, which included the 1980s-era building doubling in size and featuring a 1200-seat state-of-the-art theatre.
The first stage of HOTA, its amphitheatre, was completed in 2018, while stage two, includes the recently opened “green” pedestrian bridge and the art gallery.
The first year program of the gallery will feature a mixture of local artists as well as selections from one of the world’s foremost art collections.
Originally published as ‘A tease and a promise’: Colourful HOTA sculpture unveiled
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