Diver

Artist: Simon Perry
Year: 2006
Location: Newport Lakes, Mason St, Newport.
Materials: Bluestone

“The artwork draws on the history of the Newport Lakes Park site and functions as a significant marker for the entrance to the parkland. The site is a reclaimed bluestone quarry which has become a haven for wild life and native flora since being turned into parkland. My idea is specifically drawn from ducks observed dipping and feeding in the lakes at the Newport site. The dipping duck motif relates to the site and its history by combining the material that the landscape is made from and the image of a bird species that inhabits the landscape. The pool/paving at the base becomes a metaphor for memory and history, the action of the duck dipping into this pool looking into that history and reflecting upon our memories and experiences of the parkland.” Simon Perry 

About the artist:

Diver is a public art commission led by Simon Perry with Drew Cole as assistant. Simon Perry is a British sculptor based in Melbourne, a well known artist and academic with a specific interest in art in public spaces.  Over the last 20 years Perry has researched, designed and produced a number of significant and high-profile public art pieces in Australia and internationally.