On March 6, one of our favorite outdoor art festivals, Sculpture by the Sea, returned to Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Western Australia. Transforming Perth’s most popular beach are 69 sculptures this year, made from local and international artists. From March 6 to March 23, an estimated 220,000 visitors are expected to visit Cottesloe for this free exhibition. Now in its 11th year, Sculpture by the Sea is an extravaganza for sculpture lovers, who get to walk on warm sand while admiring some of today’s most cutting-edge art.
One of the stand-outs this year is Kim Perrier’s Ashes to Ashes, a half-cut out eucalyptus tree that looks as if its inside’s have been burned. Take a closer look and you’ll notice a familiar shape. Within the ashes, human faces have been stacked one on top of each other in a ghostly fashion. For his standout sculpture, Perrier is one of two artists who will share $10,000 and receive the Western Australian Sculptor Scholarship.
“Kim Perrier’s Ashes to Ashes, technically stunning and mystical work, celebrates the relationship between trees and humanity, the tree becoming the vessel for the transmigration of soul. Perrier ponders the tree as a sentient being dwelling in three worlds – a link between heaven, earth and underground,” writes the festival.
This is the first time Perrier has submitted his work in a Sculpture by the Sea competition. He created the 3.7 meter tall piece from a hallow marri log he found on the side of a road. He first moulded the human faces in plaster and then burnt them into the log until he merged the humans forms with the wood. He then cast the faces with charcoal and used glue to set everything in place. There are about 30 faces peering out from the scorched bark.
You can see more of the works currently dotting the Cottesloe coastline on the Sculpture by the Sea website.