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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Topfers’ steel and paint

HOW do you make sculptures vandal-proof? With a plethora of imposing public sculptures installed in Canberra recently, inlcuding Michael Le Grand’s new “Tango” work in Darwin Place and the Chifley-Curtin sculpture near the National Archives, it’s been a question on the mind of many arts bureacrats.

John Topfer's "Growth".

One solution, it seems, is to exhibit your works in a blue-ribbon suburb, as Canberra sculptor John Topfer found in May when he won the Toorak Village Sculpture Festival’s first prize for his work “Growth”. There are, it seems, fewer vandals in Toorak. Mind you, the special steel he uses in all his works is very thick and would probably defeat even the most ingenious delinquent.

Until this Sunday, September 23, you can see “Growth” exhibited at the ANC Gallery in Dickson, along with his other works, all set against the highly textured paintings of his sister Jenny, who lives in Tasmania.

ANCA Gallery has rarely looked so good, as his waxed and weathered steel sculptures stand out in three dimensions against the paintings’ subtle   shades of white.

Topfer, who lives and sculpts on a farm near the Brindabella Ranges, told “CityNews” he had been a Canberran since age five.  It was a good location in which  to produce sculptures without bothering anyone. He was also able to view closely the effects of weathering on the steel’s surfaces, where even bird droppings contributed to the woody look and feel.

Topfer said he has never before exhibited with his sister, whose idea the show had been. “They go well together,” he said.

“Landmarks,” Paintings by Jenny Topfer and sculptures by John Topfer, is at 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson until September 25.

Jenny and John Topfer.

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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