‘Really damning’
THE $59,800 Chinese sculpture Vincent city council will buy instead of a local work is one of a series of eight, despite a council policy that it not buy a “mass-produced nor ‘off-the-shelf’ piece”.
Mayor Alannah MacTiernan says a series of eight doesn’t count: “Many great Nolan works of art come in a series,” she says.
But a national artists’ advocacy group has slammed the purchase. National Association for the Visual Arts executive director Tamara Winikoff describes the process surrounding the purchase as, “a case of mismanagement”.
The council had originally commissioned local artist Matt McVeigh to create a $30,000 abstract sculpture for Bulwer Street that reflected the multicultural area.
After receiving a $5000 advance Mr McVeigh discovered his concept was not sturdy enough. The council didn’t like redesigns he submitted, with Ms MacTiernan describing the piece as, “a very stock standard piece of municipal art and we’re trying to do something a bit better”.
The council then bought Games by Chinese artist Chen Wen Ling on the recommendation of Ms MacTiernan and Cr John Carey, after they’d seen it displayed at the Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea exhibition.
“Not only do they seem to be breaking their contract with [McVeigh], but [Games] doesn’t meet their own guidelines,” Ms Winikoff told the Voice.
“It goes back to the basic principle of ‘what’s the purpose of public art’.
“This is an acquisition on behalf of the community and in that regard what you would expect is it would be a piece that would have some meaning and some significance to that place.”
Ms MacTiernan says the council did nothing wrong and it had been “very disappointed” when Mr McVeigh said he couldn’t build the piece he’d designed.
“He came back and said ‘no I can’t do that work, I have to make this’, what was ultimately a completely different piece of work. What he has come back with has only the most tangential similarity to the piece commissioned.
“It’s not our intention to pursue him for breach of contract but it’s quite possible that it would be open to us.”
She says the city’s Australian-Chinese population gives the Chen piece relevance.
Ms Winikoff says losing a contract—and having work publicly described as “a very stock standard piece of municipal art”—damages an artist’s reputation: “That’s a really damning public statement to make about any artist.”
by DAVID BELL
Perth Voice Interactive 
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