Get on the road to show big is best

WHY isn’t the Australia Council putting their hand in their skyrockets and funding more real art?

The Big Prawn at Ballina was restored by the Lorenzo de' Medici of Australia, Bunnings’ b

IF you are a real road warrior you know the fundamental difference between Australia and other places is our unique collection of big things. Yes, when it comes to art on a grand scale we make those so-called art capitals of the world look, well, small.

Every Australian kiddie knows about Auguste Rhodin. This could be because, like Tony Abbott, Aug was briefly a priest. Or it could be because he did lots of sculpting of people without their clothes on, which in those pre-internet days, you didn’t get to see a lot of.

But who teaches Australian youth about Paul Kelly the Rhodin of Oz? Maybe to your great shame you have enjoyed his works but have never bothered to get out of your car and discover the artist behind works like The Big Scotsman or his greatest achievement The Big Lobster.

Paul started the whole big sculpture movement 51 years ago with Scotty. Commissioned to promote South Australia’s Scotty’s Motel, this 5 metre, kilt girded masterpiece was sculpted during the state’s conservative days under premier Tommy Playford. You would have expected this form of art to blossom under the great Steele Hall or Fiji’s Donnie Dunstan but Paul broke through and South Australia is a better place for it.

It was to be 16 years before Paul was to get a new commission. It was during Paul’s red period and patrons Ian Backler and Rob Moyse took advantage of this when they got him to create his greatest work, the 17 metre high, Big Lobster. Today among the avant-garde cultural elite in the south the work is known as Larry the Lobster.

As the National Gallery of Washington writes of Paul Kelly: “his lyrical sculptures match the cerebral refinement of Florence's humanists, especially the Neoplatonic philosophers, who saw beauty as a way to approach an understanding of the divine. Kelly's ethereal figures, defined by kilt and shell rather than modelled with light and shadow, seem to float. His subjects, both Albannaich and arthropodic are imbued with lyricism and mystery”.

But promoting big sculpture in this country is like putting pearls before swine. Influenced by Paul Kelly’s work, University of South Australia art academic James Martin created another crustacean under a 1989 commission for Goulburn based developers, Louie and Attilla Moknay. Louie and Attilla were also responsible for The Big Oyster and The Big Merino.

Naturally it wasn’t long before Ballina Council wanted to demolish the now faded pink creation. But it was left to the Lorenzo de' Medici of Australia, Bunnings’ boss, John Gillam, to save the rawish prawn from the vandals. Bunnings spent $400,000 restoring Martin’s three dimensional predecessor to Damien Hirst’s tiger shark.

Of course Damien got around 12 big ones for his sea life and if we had more patrons like Johnny Gillam we would see even more big. Where are the sculptors like Kelly and Martin now? Why isn’t the Australia Council putting their hand in their skyrockets and funding more real art? Who needs sculpture by the sea when you have pieces like this all over this great country of ours? Can you walk into a Merino's backside at the Venice Bienalle? You can see a lot of crap in Paris but not a Big Poo! Think you'll see a Big Avo at MOMA?

And philistines on councils keep knocking back great artistic endeavours. Out at Dunedoo, the 836 local residents were rightfully looking to move their beautiful hamlet from being simply known for its two squash courts and main street Xmas parade. Far sighted development folk sought to use art to highlight the town’s cultural attractions and fought to build The Big Dunny. America may have the world’s largest peanut, France the world’s largest boar (no not Nick Sarkozy), New Zealand the world’s largest bottle of lemon and paeroa but imagine the reaction of the gang at the Berlin Biennale if the good burghers of Dunedoo (no pun intended) had cracked the big white telephone?

Australians unite. Get in your non-hybrid cars now and hit the roads showing your support for all that’s big and good in this land.

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