What to see (and what to skip) at Sculpture by the Sea

Sunshine, blue skies: who needs these things? There’s a certain romance to seeing Sculpture by the Sea in the rain: the grey clouds and choppy seas make an epic backdrop; the crowds, if not smaller, then at least a bit more dispersed as they seek shelter from the drizzle. This year, SxS had to contend with “tar balls” too, those mysterious globs that washed up on Tamarama Beach, as though the sea, in its mafioso accent, said: “You want sculptures? I’ll give you sculptures.” Turns out the tar balls are potentially linked to a local sewage plant, which is delightful.

When it comes to SxS, the elements, as ever, are part of the appeal. Watching SxS veteran Orest Keywan’s spindly The Blue Above the Line battling the gales was its own grand spectacle, a David and Goliath war on a cliff face (as far as I know, it’s still there). Akira Kamada’s aptly titled Where the Wind Blows – a circular nest of grapevine, twine and recycled copper wire, full of empty space – seemed to be taunting the forces so much organisers had to tie it down.

But with 100 sculptures by 103 artists on display, there’s a lot to get through – so think of this as an overview, rather than a deep dive. If, like me, you’re immediately distracted by a gorilla’s golden testicles, there’s always time for a few return visits, such is the glory of free public art.

Me like shiny things

This year in the main site (the rock garden directly opposite Marks Park) sits Clayton Blake’s Odyssey, an eight-metre tall rocket ship made from stainless steel that looks ready to blast off back to the Art Deco period. The Queensland artist has described it as a “celebration of the human spirit and our innate desire to explore”, which may explain its display at that tech-bro haven Burning Man last year. Here, by the ocean, it brings to mind an 18th-century diving suit and pre-Cousteau undersea adventure. That, or it’s Bioshock’s Big Daddy returning to torment the lost inhabitants of Rapture.

Clayton Blake’s Odyssey.Credit: Charlotte Curd

Nearby, Japanese artist Haruyuki Uchida’s Shape of Water – a nearly four-metre-high shimmering steel monolith that sways subtly with the help of magnets (cue Insane Clown Posse’s Miracles) – threatened to topple in the raging winds. The delighted onlookers aren’t worried: I immediately see two couples posing strategically beside it with arms casually outstretched, our own Leaning Tower of Pisa of Bondi.

Further down towards Tamarama, another shiny specimen beckons from the rocks. Alas, Chinese artist Lucius Lu’s Navigating the Winds is not a fun sculpture of that despondent alien seeker Norrin Radd, aka Marvel’s Silver Surfer, but rather a refugee or migrant braving the elements for a better world. The body is shaped from hollowed out stainless steel, its jagged edges evoking the waves it stands before. I marvel at its metallic glory and think, “Wait, am I a comics nerd now?”

Haruyuki Uchida’s swaying Shape of Water.Credit: Janie Barrett

When trash becomes treasure

The ingenuity of sculptors, using discarded materials to transform junk into art, is once more on display throughout SxS. On the so-called “Boot”, that massive sandstone rock near the Icebergs end of the walk, is Elyssa Sykes-Smith’s Reclaimed Chaos. Planks of cedar timber left over from window framing scraps have been delicately wrapped around the rock like a crown of thorns – fitting for a work about nature’s sacrifice, and our ever-increasing despair around the climate crisis.

In Marks Park, South Korean artist Min-Sub Park’s To Endure #16 also uses waste to make us ponder eco-destruction, Meccano-ing discarded car frames into an intricately outlined bucking bull. It’s a sort of deconstructed version of his Pommery Award-winning bronze from last year, but somehow loses none of the power and strength in the material switch.

Reclaimed Chaos, by Elyssa Sykes-Smith, wrapping around the Boot.Credit: Stuart Spence

Sea change to tree change

Behold trees, those sculptures of the natural world. This year’s SxS artists love them, turning Marks Park into a proper forest. This includes Professor Shen Lieyi, the Chinese artist whose work Tracing won the $100,000 prize. With its upturned roots reaching into the sky and its branches piercing a silky granite slab below, it’s an intricate spectacle, organically veined and knotted. From a distance, it looks like a giraffe is parsing the plains of Marks Park.

Shen Lieyi’s winning work Tracing.Credit: Janie Barrett

Passages, by Swiss artist Urs-P Twellman, recontextualises the dissected trunk of a New England manna gum tree, linking the weathered slabs together as though they’re playing Ring-Around-the-Rosy. It’s meditative in its displacement yet playful, its title urging onlookers to clamber through like a mini magical forest. Of course, no adults dare to give it a go until some unruly kid whizzes right through like a phantom of chaos. Thank you, misbehaving child, for showing us the way.

Give me whimsy or give me death

With SxS’s locale-specific focus generally skewing towards climate destruction, it’s always nice to get an escapist reprieve. Sometimes you wanna see cute things! South Korean artist Jun-Jin Noh’s Propose, featuring a baby turtle on top of its mother turtle, carved from granite, both nuzzling a glass ball balanced between them, is warm and cuddly.

Moving Sun, Silent Cloud by Osamu Ohnishi and Dr Masako OhnishiCredit: Charlotte Curd

Moving Sun, Silent Cloud by Japanese husband-and-wife team Osamu Ohnishi and Dr Masako Ohnishi is another highlight, its two anthropomorphic figures – a blazing sun and puffed cloud, based on characters from Masako’s painting and poetry – like heroes from an anime. Warm and inviting, they’re constructed of bolted-together slabs of stainless steel and aluminium, giving them a rustic, robotic look. Coincidentally, you can climb into them like Transformers and peek through their eyeholes, their masks offering a sweet refuge from the billowing winds.

Just for laughs

A five-metre-long bronze gorilla, just casually lounging with its golden testicles hanging out? Sure, why not. French artist Denis Defrancesco’s KKB XXL might be obnoxious provocation (the KKB stands for “King Kong Balls”, and as the artist has previously said: “His balls out in the open like coconuts thrown in the faces of conformism”), but it’s hard to deny. Just look at that carefree, lackadaisical pose: this gorilla, a sort of bawdy cousin to Eiji Hayakawa’s Giant in the Forest from last year, should be a lifestyle inspiration.

Denis Defrancesco’s KKB XXL.Credit: Charlotte Curd

Chris Wilson’s Smoko Seat is one of the few works at this year’s SxS that requests audience interaction – it’s made up of three bright red upturned wheelbarrows urging onlookers to take a seat and enjoy the view across the water to North Bondi. I didn’t see any of the nearby construction workers making use of it, but the tourists seemed to like it. May the smoko go worldwide.

There’s always an artwork about melting at SxS, what with the doomy beachside sun and all. This time it’s a collaboration between Victorian artists Lois Basham and Warren Lee with Liquidity, an oversized 20-cent coin cast in aluminium, melting in a bed of coal. As its title suggests, it’s a dual comment on financial chaos and environmental collapse, played through with bleak humour as the platypus, beak up, looks to bob for breath from within the molten mess we’ve made.

The Instagram favourites

You’ve no doubt seen them on your feeds already, the favourites of the snappy set. Local artist Drew McDonald’s Sharnana (I’ve just been calling it “Banana Shark”) has won over attendees thanks to its dadaist bent: a great white shark emerging from within a banana peel. “To stop, admire and question the reality of a shark coming out of a peeled banana is to question what it means to exist on a rock floating in space,” says McDonald in his artist statement. “Look, Banana Shark!” says everyone else.

Sharnana, by Drew McDonald.Credit: Janie Barrett

Lucy Humphrey’s Infinity is slick in its simplicity, but judging from the queues waiting for their photo op, it’s caught everyone’s attention. A geometric frame of stainless steel, like a ship’s porthole, it urges you to peek inside and contemplate the view within. Unfortunately, as it’s on a cliff face, it’s a controlled experiment: you can’t test out the reverse view, which is the Marks Park toilet block, but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Sculpture by the Sea runs between Bondi and Tamarama until November 4.