- The sculpture, titled Abundance, weighs about 50 kilograms and is roughly the size of a hunting horn.
- Gold holds personal significance for the artist, Lee.
- Troy Emery and Gaypalani Wanambi are amongst the future participants.
Australian contemporary artist Lindy Lee has created a sculpture using A$10 million worth of pure gold. The finished piece, titled Abundance, weighs about 50 kilograms and is roughly the size of a hunting horn.
Abundance is the first project from the new Pallion Arts Program, launched by the Pallion Group, an Australian company that is known for making the Melbourne Cup and Australian Open trophies. Pallion supplied the gold for Lee’s sculpture, which showcases a cylindrical half-circle with thousands of small perforations that interact with ambient light. While Pallion retains the ownership of Abundance, the sculpture will be on permanent loan to the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra.
The public will first see Abundance during the exhibition Lindy Lee from October 25, 2024, to June 2025. At the same time, the NGA will also unveil Lee’s new massive sculpture, Ouroboros (2022-24), which will be on permanent display outside the gallery. Ouroboros costs A$14 million to create and has attracted criticism for its exorbitant price.
Ouroboros is inspired by the mythical creature it represents, will feature a highly polished surface that reflects its surroundings and will be internally illuminated at night. The sculpture, standing 4 meters tall and weighing around 13 tonnes, is designed for visitors to walk through and experience from the inside.
The Pallion Arts Programs aims to extend support to the Australian artists by providing opportunities to work with precious metals. Troy Emery and Gaypalani Wanambi are amongst the future participants.
For Lee, working with gold for the first time was a remarkable experience. She worked with artisans at Pallion’s subsidiary, W.J. Sanders, in Marrickville, Sydney. Lee describes the workshop as “a gorgeous little old-fashioned place- it felt Victorian.” Gold holds personal significance for Lee as it symbolizes a special moment in her family’s history. Her father moved to Australia in 1947, while her mother and siblings escaped Communist China with gold that helped them secure their freedom. “My mum had this store of gold and when her mother-in-law was imprisoned, tortured and beaten, she managed to bribe the guards to release my grandmother. Gold to me represents independence and the ultimate luxury that is freedom,” says Lee.
