The Great Victorian Rail Trail
Merton VIC 3715
1 July, 2022 – 31 March 2023
Design development, construction/fabrication and installation of artworks
Following an extensive artist and site selection process we’ve been excited to announce that artists have been commissioned for each of the 8 artwork opportunities and that site selection for the 7 larger artwork sites has been finalised.
The $1.2M project, funded by the State Government’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund is a joint project between Mitchell, Murrindindi and Mansfield Shire Councils which aims to increase trail usage by visitors to the region and providing local economic benefit.
Community feedback gathered during the project’s engagement period in late 2021 has helped to shape the curatorial direction to which artists were required to respond in their submissions, ‘Connections.’ The project’s Community Reference Group has also provided support and advice on this topic and in refining suitable locations for artworks to help meet the objectives of the grant funding.
Following consideration of the initial 79 Expression of Interest submissions, the project’s selection panel subsequently invited 22 artists to develop artistic concepts for one of the 8 opportunities. 8 artist concepts were selected from these submissions to be commissioned for the project.
Site A: Donna Marcus
Donna Marcus is an Australian artist best known for her use of vast collections of discarded aluminium kitchenware. Constructed from discarded kitchen utensils – plastic and aluminium teapots, lids, jelly moulds, steamers, colanders, egg poachers and bottle-tops – her sculptures draw viewers into a world of kitchens both remembered and imagined. Marcus is engaged by the stories evoked by these objects, and by the familiarity they engender in many viewers. Their original uses are recalled and extended by the process of assemblage, as they are combined into the repetitive forms of modernist grids and spheres. The materials themselves generate another layer of reference, and further extend the modernist impulse to regularity, repetition, and dream. Marcus has exhibited extensively both within Australia and internationally, appearing in major sculpture survey and award exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Art and Design, New York, the National Gallery of Australia and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, nationally and internationally, and has been the subject of several scholarly and journalistic publications. Marcus’ large-scale permanent public artworks include Poise and Grace (2019) Xiamen China, Plant (2018) Gasworks Brisbane, Vapour (2016) Zhengzhou China, Sponge (2016) Station Square Joondalup Western Australia, Propel (2015) Gladstone Airport Queensland, Trickle, (2009) 400 George St Brisbane, Delphinus (2009) KAUST Saudi Arabia, and Steam (2006) Brisbane Square, Brisbane. Donna Marcus holds an Adjunct position at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and is exclusively represented by Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert, Sydney https://gallerysallydancuthbert.com/
