Ben Apfelbaum

SCULPTURE BY THE SEA 2019 : THE WRAP

Sculpture by The Sea had a further sense of urgency about it this year as it was quite possibly the last time it would be held at its current Bondi to Tamarama site.

Waverley Council and founding director David Handley are locked in a battle over the installation of  a disability path in Marks Park.

As a result it appears that this may be the last time that Sculpture by the Sea, in its 23rd year, will be held in the Waverley Municipality area. If this occurs it will be a big blow to the businesses in the local area who rely on Sculpture by the Sea for a financial boost before Christmas.

Due to the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the tyrannical grip of the Soviet Union, ten Czech and Slovak artists were featured in the exhibition. Overall  one hundred and forty artists from eighteen countries created the one hundred and eleven sculptures which attract hundreds of thousands of people each year.

The past few years have had an air of predictability, in that the winning sculpture is of an abstract nature whilst the People’s Choice award is of a sometime humorous and realistic nature.

This year’s winner is  Morgan Jones for his corten steel sculpture ‘The Sun Also Rises’.

The prize for the winning sculpture is $70,000 and the prize for the People’s Choice award is $5000.

Judged by the number of people crowding around the sculptures, when accessible, Joel Adler’s sculpture ‘Viewfinder’  which acted as a periscope to the waves crashing below, Geraldo Zamproni’s red pencil entitled ‘More Than It Seems’, Viktor Freso’s ‘Angry Boy’ and Wang Kaifang’s ‘The Statue of Mad Liberty’ seemed to capture the public’s imagination.

Since 2013 the winning sculpture has been installed in Headland Park at Georges Heights. Previous to this winners have been gifted to the Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Orange Regional Gallery and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

I hope  to attend next year’s Sculpture By The Sea if it is held in Sydney (there are threats that it may go interstate) but where it will take place is anybody’s guess.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum (c)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.