Sculpture and large ceramics

SCULPTURE AND LARGE CERAMICS

Sculpture and large ceramics

Ruth Benson (1934 -)

Alumna 1951

Title: Impressions of Contrast

Medium: Mural Ceramic

Date: 1989

Dimensions: 218cm x 130 cm

Collection category: ceramics, alumnae artist

Artist in Residence 1989 through the AIR program funded by Catherine and Margaret Mittleheuser

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Kathleen Shillam (1916 – 2002)

Alumna 1931 (O’Neill)

Title: Cormorant

Medium: Bronze

Date: 1989

Dimensions: 970hx400x470

Collection category: sculpture, alumnae artist

Donated by Year 12 students of 1993

Title: Bilby

Medium: Bronze

Date:

Dimensions: H170mm, L260mm

Collection category: sculpture, alumnae artist

Donated by the Old Girls Association, 1992

The daughter of an artist herself, and better known simply as Kath, Kath Shillam (nee O’Neill)

arrived in Australia with her family in 1927. The youngest of four children, Kath was an

inquisitive and independent child and attained a scholarship to attend Brisbane Girls

Grammar School. Believing there to be few options available to her by following an academic

path, in 1932 Kath left Grammar to study art briefly at the Brisbane Technical College where

she met her future husband, artist Leonard Shillam. Offered work at Steven Oxlade’s

commercial art studio, Kath left her studies and worked for Oxlade between 1934 and 1938.

Later that year, in the company of her sister Doreen, Shillam left Brisbane for Sydney,

returning north in 1940. Once back in Brisbane, Shillam resumed her interest in sculpting and

shortly after married Len in 1942.

Central to Shillam’s practice was her love of drawing. The period spent in Sydney in the late

1930s allowed the artist to frequent Taronga Park Zoo, where along with her friend and fellow

artist Francis Lymburner, she would incessantly draw and execute studies of the animals. Her

natural facility with pen and ink was matched by her later ability when working with a diverse

range of materials while sculpting which included clay, bronze, resins, and ciment fondu.

Shillam received the L.J. Harvey Memorial Prize from the Queensland Art Gallery, twice, in

1951 and 1955. In 1960, she taught drawing at the Department of Architecture, University of

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Queensland, and the following year left Brisbane to travel abroad. Between 1961 and 1964

the Shillam’s travelled through Greece, Italy, and England. While abroad the artist’s studied at

the Academia di Firenze, Italy and the Royal College of Art, London. In 1964, and again three

years later in 1967, Shillam’s work was curated in the Mildura Sculpture Triennial, Victoria.

The artist’s work is represented in several state collections including the Art Gallery of New

South Wales, Sydney; QAGOMA, Brisbane; Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston;

and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Other collections holdin g the artist’s work

include Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane; HOTA – Home of the Arts, Gold Coast; QUT Art

Museum, Brisbane; and Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle.

Jan King (1945 -)

Australia

Title: Fandango

Medium: Aluminium and Zinc coating on steel

Date : 1988

Dimensions: 965mm x 300mm x 600mm

Collection category: Sculpture

Artist in Residence program, funded by Cathryn and Margaret Mittelheuser.

Jan King was born and raised in western Queensland. She now lives and works in Sydney. She initially studied art in Perugia, and returned to Sydney to continue studies at the National Art School, graduating in 1975. She completed postgraduate studies at The New York Studio School, New York in 1979 and later received a Bachelor of Visual Art at UNSW, COFA.

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She has been a practising sculptor for more than thirty years and her work, although abstract, is influenced frequently by landscape and natural forms in the environment and the structures and forces which shift and mould our surroundings. King is represented in numerous public, private and corporate collections, including Macquarie University, University of Western Sydney, UTS, Woollahra Council and the Casula Arts Centre. She has also received numerous awards and grants

Robert Clerc

Title: Reflection

Medium: Stainless Steel

Date: 2010

Dimensions: 2530x1240x50

Collection category: Sculpture

Donated by the Old Girls Association, 2010

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2010 Robert Clerc, sculptor.

The “Reflection” sculpture, at home on the Pool Lawn, was an initiative of the Principal, Dr Amanda Bell, the Board of Trustees, and importantly the Old Girls Association. The aim was to create an artwork to adorn the precinct of the newly built pool and lawn terrace, adding to the School’s art collection. The 2.5 -metre high contemporary was a design of lines, a stylised water screen reminiscent of waves, crafted in stainless steel, and was installed and unveiled on Saturday 9 October 2010 by Christine Purvis, President of the Old Girls Association. The sculpture was a gift from the Old Girls Association marking the 135 th anniversary of the School. Robert Clerc, the well-known Sydney sculptor and jeweller, was the artist chosen to submit a design for the work. Clerc was familiar with working in a variety of metals and contemporary designs and already had numerous celebrated commissions for his sculptures, including his first public commission for Kambala, an independent girls’ school in Sydney. The Old Girls Association liked the design put forward and the project proceeded to realise a beautiful and significant work of art that was added to the school aesthetics. The opening was a fine affair, with the invitation to “Women of Grammar - Champagne on the Lawn”. The artist, Robert Clerc was in attendance, and spoke to the design process and the sculpture’s creation. As the weather was rather inclement, the opening cel ebrations were held in the Barbara Fielding Room on Level Four of the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre. “The aesthetic of the swimming pool area is powerful and a wonderful complement to Robert’s sculpture.” (Autumn Gazette, 2011, page 23) In an archive blog from the school website, the author wrote of the sculpture as “elegant, timeless, and stunning”, “the latest jewel in the glittering crown of the Girls Grammar campus”. “I think the sculpture was well -received as an aesthetic addition to the lawn area...Hopefully, it has become a happy part of the school campus like a number of other artworks.” (Bell email 1.3.2022) Clerc’s wife Michele commented at the time:

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Rebecca Brown (1977 -)

Alumna 1994

TitleThe Swimmer

Medium: Bronze

Date: 1994

Dimensions : Ht:1500mm x 450mm x 450mm.

Collection category: Sculpture

Donated by the Year 12 students of 1994

Sue Bleakley (1946 - )

Title: Ophelia

Medium: Bronze

Date: 2010

Dimensions: H80cm x D50cm

Collection category: Sculpture

Donated by the students of 1999

Susan Bleakley was born in Brisbane and now lives and works in Tasmania. Studied Commercial Art at the Brisbane Technical College (now QUT) and initially worked as a fashion illustrator.

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Rhyl Hinwood (1940 - )

Title: Professor Dorothy Hill

Medium: Bronze

Date: 2000

Dimensions: H50cm x W20cm x D20cm

Collection category: Sculpture

Title: Kathleen Campbell Brown

Medium: Bronze

Date: 2000

Dimensions: H50cm x W20cm x D20cm

Collection category: Sculpture

Rhyl Hinwood was born in Brisbane and her career began in the Queensland Museum where she worked as an artist for five years. In 1976 she won a commission to complete the carvings in the Great Court of the University of Queensland. As a professional sculptor with over fifty years experience, Rhyl has worked almost exclusively on the design and production of over seven hundred commissioned public artworks for institutions, churches, corporations, organisations, federal, state and local governments as well as for private clients.

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Hollie (1958 -)

Title: Moondancing

Medium: Acrylic on ply.

Date: 1998

Dimensions: 2200x850x850

Collection category: Sculpture

Donated by the artist, 2007.

Gift for the CLC Creative Learning Centre.

Exhibited permanently in the Barbara Fielding cafeteria, CLC Level 4.

Hollie is an artist working across various media including sculpture, oil and water colour. Hollie was a teacher of Visual Art at BGGS.

Cate Collopy

Design: Emma Montague, 2000

Title: Dream it, Dare it, Do it

Medium: Vitrified porcelain tiles, stainless steel.

Date: 2000

Dimensions: 1810x1810

Collection category: Sculpture, mosaics

The concept of the mosaic was initiated by the mother of the then Head Girl, Eleni Anthony (2000), and it was Year 12 student Emma Montague who sketched the design for the mosaic. Emma has since gone on to develop a successful design studio and fashion collection of jewellery and eyewear. The Year 12 students fundraised the project and various artists were invited to tender for the work. Artist Cate Collopy was chosen to create the mosaic. The mosaic features hand cut and vitrified porcelain tiles in a multi-colour site-specific design. Brisbane Girls Grammar students in their distinctive blue and white uniform are depicted in a background reflecting House colours and finished with the 2000 Year 12 motto “Dream It, Dare It, Do It” in contrasting laser cut stainless steel lettering. Cate Collopy is an Australian Artist living in Brisbane, Queensland and her artworks include painting, public artwork, mixed media object and small sculpture.

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Minerva

Title: Minerva

Medium: Bronze.

Date: 2023

Dimensions: 2200x850x850

Collection category: Sculpture

Donated by the Parents and Friends Group 2023

In the 1959 December magazine Joan Gellie wrote a Eulogy to “Minerva”, a statue which had adorned the sixth form class for many years as their mascot… “It is to be hoped that future

generations of Sixths will respect Minerva’s longevity, admire her remarkably well -preserved appearance and dust the old girl at least once a term!”

1959 photo: Anne Edwards, Geraldine Wheeler, & Barbara Kay with Minerva. (Original photo owned by Geraldine Wheeler – copy given to BGGS for the Class of 1960’s 50 th anniversary in 2010)

The last sighting of Minerva at Girls Grammar was in 1966 when she appeared in a photograph album compiled by Form VID for their Form Mistress, Mrs Doreen Yates. In the photograph, she is wearing a summer Panama hat and a tie that includes the Sixth Former s’ new badge.

Sadly the original Minerva bust went missing thereafter.

To celebrate the 70 th anniversary of the Parents and Friends Association, and their significant contribution to the school, a new bust of Minerva was commissioned.

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Created by renowned sculptor, Mr Phillip Piperides, the Minerva sculpture was installed in the gardens of the School to replace the original sculpture. The sculpture was unveiled on 12 th September, 2022. In 2019, the School introduced a new Learning Management System that needed a uniquely ‘Girls Grammar’ name. Minerva already had a place in Girls Grammar history and, because she represented many of the qualities to which Grammar girls strive, the new system was named for t he Sixth Formers’ mascot and motivator of hard work.

The Japanese Garden

Between the Main (Gailey) Building and East Wing is a small but valued and loved Japanese Garden with its distinctive toro or Ishidourou , – a type of Japanese stone shrine originally used as devotional votives in a Buddhist shrine and later in time to illuminate the path to the shrine.

Various features crop up repeatedly in Japanese gardens including one or more of these stone lanterns. It is believed that these lanterns serve to add to the balance, harmony, and enduring

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nature of the garden and have become almost iconic in their significance. The light held in the lamp may represent the teachings of the Buddha that help overcome the darkness of ignorance. As such, the lanterns represented important symbolic offerings to the Buddha. Seirinkan High School, then known as Hirayama Gakuen Tsushima Girls High, located in Tsushima City was our first Affiliate Sister School. At that time, this was a girls only school, like BGGS. In the early 1990s, due to changing demographics in that region of Japan, it transitioned to a co-educational school. The former owner and Chairman of Seirinkan High School, Mr Tetsuryo Hirayama, decided that a garden was how he would like to commemorate the tenth anniversary of our mutual friendship and exchange. With then Principal Dr Judith Hancock, an agreement was reached by both schools to construct this garden. Mr Hirayama brought his own school gardener, Mr Yoshinori Ishihara, to Australia and his educational colleagues, Mr Ishihara with Mr Masayoshi Uchiyama, both from Sydney, surveyed the area, purchased all the construction materials and equipment to bring the garden to life on our campus. Mr Ishihara, familiar in his grey jodhpurs, carefully selected every rock and, as if sculpting a work of art, carefully determined the placement and orientation of each. The garden was formally opened on 4 th August 1988 by Principal, Judith Hancock, with a small ceremony in the presence of Mr Hirayama, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Macrae Grassie, and the Japanese Vice Consul to Brisbane.

Shaded by a large, now mature Lillypilly tree and surrounded by flowering shrubs and grasses, it provides a moment of beauty, reflection, and peace.