Week 39 – On the trail for Public Art

What – Public Art Trail, Horsham

Where – Wimmera River Adventure Island car park to CBD and back

How far – 5.2km round trip.

10 words – Art is everywhere, good for the soul and worth a walk

Art is all around us.

The brilliance of a sunrise, the reflections on the river, the cracks in rocks or even the colors and shapes of gardens, buildings and nature that create crazy beautiful abstract compositions.

Today we take a walk in Horsham to see all sorts of public art, made by people and deliberately, but often subtly, scattered across the landscape.

It is amazing what you see when you look – and what you find when you think about what you are seeing.

Come for a walk with me and fill on this feast of public art.

We start down at the river which every day provides changing moods, color and natural art.

Not everyone will agree on my first stop – the shining silver Time Capsule standing on the edge of the path just before the car park to Adventure Island and the Anzac Bridge.

It was first created by the Horsham Leo Club in 1977 as a replica of the world globe and made from a former naval mine.

I love is the odd shape and the light and the shadows that it creates.  And it feels like transforming a bomb into the world speaks hopefully to unity, peace and rolling along as one.

It starts to rain, and the drops create a bit of art in the brown river as I head to the official Public Art Trail’s original starting point – the carpark beyond the rowing club of Eastgate Drive.

Here I find Wimmera Woven Vessels – hanging sculptures made from old fencing wire, including some retrieved after the 2011 floods.

Created by locally born artist Michael Shiell, they speak to our connections to the Wimmera River.

I am also reminded of the term about being up a certain creek “without a paddle in a barbed wire canoe” which makes this a fitting starting point as we see-saw through lockdowns and battle to steer clear of COVID.

I love the way they hang up there silently watching and reminding us of the region’s long connection – socially, sustainably and spiritually – to this stretch of water.

Next stop is the Remlaw Fire Memorial, created by local sculptor Donal Molloy Drum in 2010 and part of the Urban Forest.

The gold bird in this striking piece, which is a bit hard to see behind the Perspex screen, actually mimics the shape of the more than 2200 ha fire which was one of many on Black Saturday.

This subtle piece also speaks to our connections to the landscape and just how tenuous this relationship can be in times of a changing climate.

Looking to the river and a line of seagulls create a perfect pose on a flat rock – some fleeting natural art.

Beside me sits a mini Stone Henge-like rock pile. I have a vague recollection these might have some link to an old olive press – but I might be wrong.

The sound shell – where performing artists meet – also rates a mention. A giant piece of acoustically perfect pie perched on the open landscape.  Today, in lockdown, my solidary shadow speaks to its silent emptiness.

Across the lawn is the 2004-built War Memorial which replaced several others around town.

It is simple but also profoundly sobering when you look at long list of solidiers’ names and the extra stones, waiting to add more in the future. If more bombs became time capsules, we might not need to fill them.

Across the lawn is a small, corrugated iron shelter featuring painted creatures of the waterways and information about the Catchment Management Authority’s activities.  Might not be Louvre material but it is interesting, colorful and a fascinating read when you get inside.

Look in the windows of the Men’s Shed in O’Callaghan’s Parade and you will find original wood art for sale.

On the corner of Hamilton and Urquhart Street, Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Cooperative is a treasure trove of magnificent mosaics. On the wall outside the entrance, you find swans, kangaroos, turtles, emus and cockatoos, to name a few.

The Centre for Participation, further along Urquhart Street has a sunset on water mosaic near the main door and a many hands mural on the northern external wall.

Station Youth Centre, just up Pynsent Street, has a bright front wall mural and a ‘dancing’ mosaic near the side door.

Back in Urquhart Street, The Uniting Wimmera Wellness Centre features an impressive peacock mosaic – even if it is hard to see well behind the cover.

Roberts Avenue has some small mosaics and a painted piano- that everyone is free to play. I realise two other pieces – a totem pole and Wimmera River Burnt Creek Meeting place have disappeared after apparently succumbing to white ant attacks. Sad but not surprising in this neck of the woods.

Bradbury Lane (off Firebrace Street) has a busy and colorful 2008 mural by Nicki Clarke and Horsham Youth inspired by their thoughts on a future Horsham.  Great ideas but not sure we are there yet!

I continue up Firebrace Street to Joe’s Lane where one side features Donal Molloy Drum’s 2009 Aerial and the other a more recent mural by Stacey Reece.

I love the way the birds contrast with the sky and on the other side I am transported to a calm water down south at Clear Lake.

Across the car park to McLachlan Street, Horsham Color has several windows featuring photographs of iconic landscape scenes and then Coles’ wall in Roberts Avenue has a large mural welcoming people to Horsham.

Windows further along feature local Aboriginal Art Works. Some amazing talent highlighted here.

Down Ward Street, toward Horsham Regional Art Gallery and frames for public art are filled with faded posters from two years ago and look a little worse for wear.

The grand façade of the gallery and Town Hall stands at the end of this lane and has been used for projections in the past.

It is also well worth a visit to the Horsham Regional Art Gallery gallery (in the Town Hall) , which is open daily and rates highly among Victoria’s regional galleries. Earlier this year RACV listed it as number one and said – “Housed in a distinctive brick art-deco building, Horsham’s gallery punches above its weight on the regional scene.”

( Read more- here )

 I hope to find art along the narrow path beside the Town Hall – Gallery Alley – but this seems to have also fallen victim to two years of pandemic.

Then it is back down Darlot Street, along the waterway path called Jardwadali Bar-Ring which takes you to a scar tree sculpture and some more mosaics.

You can also duck into the gardens and view sculptures made from wood and a snakes and ladders mosaic and then take the path back through the urban forest to the car.

In summary – not only does Horsham punch above its weight with its regional art gallery there is also a gallery of free public art in this regional city. You just have to take the time to look.