Project 10: Architecture & Identity

Project 10: Architecture & Identity

Blue Poles located in the National Museum of Australia’s Garden of Australian Dreams.

Image: Paul Livingston

I’d never explored the Garden of Australia Dreams (GOAD) or looked at the area in more than a cursory way before our excursion. The explanation of the representations in the GOAD I found very enlightening and has inspired me to explore it further.

One of our set questions asks, Why the GOAD is considered ‘Postmodern’ landscape architecture? Jodie provided the answer at the start of our tour by simply defining Modern architecture as referring to “truth to material” whereas, Postmodern architecture refers to “saying something with material.” The discussion below is about what is being said or interpreted by the viewer through the use of material.

The feature of the GOAD that I chose is the eight blue poles representing communication by telegraph and telephone through this great country. The “Eight blue painted poles [are] set according to the angles of Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ …”. (Reed p.137)

Initially when I saw Blue Poles 11 in the National Gallery of Australia in the 1980s I did not like the work. Over the years I have come to appreciate it having visited it a number of times and probably more so after seeing a documentary about Jackson Pollock. Of course, I’d heard the tales of the uproar the purchase of the painting caused when it was initially purchased and the current comment of what a great investment it has been.

While trying to decide which of the works I photographed I would use for this project I think Joyce Morgan’s article in The Age, 12 December 2003, cemented my decision. It related to David Barnett’s, John Howard’s authorised biographer, objection to the blue poles in the garden because it was a monument to Gough Whitlam. Professor Richard Weller, who designed the GOAD, said the sculpture was intended to be humorous. “(It) was a joke on money and culture and recent Australian history,” Professor Weller said. “We were punning on value and how things became valuable.” In Barnett’s submission he said, “I was told the poles would be painted another colour. They are still blue.” Weller’s response to that, “If this regime thinks there is some problem with the blue poles, perhaps it would suit them better if they were cut down and turned into black stumps,” he said. “We did not intend them as a monument to a particular political figure.” One does wonder if Professor Weller protests too much. Surely the reading of the blue poles as relating to Gough Whitlam must have been a conscious intent of Professor Weller considering all his subtle references in the garden. All I can say is, I’m glad they are still blue!

Aside from the ‘unintended’ monument to Gough Whitlam the poles represent telegraph poles and communication across Australia from pioneering times to the present. As quoted above, the blue poles also represented changing value. The great monetary expenditure and attitude regarding the painting being purchased for $1.3 million a “world record for a contemporary American Painting” compared with the current monetary value and attitude of the public about the once outrageous purchase.

It has been a challenging assignment trying to interpret various works when deciding on which one to write about. I’ll end with a quote from The Guardian by Deyan Sudjic, “There is no Rosetta Stone provided by the architect to unravel all the meanings, just a few broad and not so broad hints. It is an architecture of intelligence and anger, of imagination and obsession, with an ambition not just to redefine Australia’s sense of itself, but architecture too.”

Bibliography

ALIA 2001, Canberra sites ~ sites in and around the national capital, viewed 12 May 2011,

Kremmer C 2003, Discord – and lots of concrete – fill garden of Australian dreams, Sydney Morning Herald online, 8 December 2003, Fairfax Digital, viewed 12 May 2011,

Cement & Concrete Association of Australia 2003, Overall winner: National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT, ROAD note, May 2003, number 65, pp. 3-5,viewed 12 May 2011,

Cement & Concrete Association of Australia 2003, Category - Precincts, ROAD note, May 2003, number 65, pp. 16-17,viewed 12 May 2011,

Devine, M 2006, Disclosed at last, the embedded messages that adorn museum, Sydney Morning Herald online, 2 April 2006, Fairfax Digital, viewed 13 May 2011,

Dove S 2009, Design Inspirations behind the Museum building, National Museum of Australia [transcript of seminar talk 29 April 2009], viewed 14 May 2011,

McCarthy G 2004, Postmodern Discontent and the National Museum of Australia, borderlands e-journal, Vol 3 No 3, 2004, viewed 12 May 2012,

< http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol3no3_2004/mccarthy_discontent.htm>

Morgan J 2003, Gough! Splutter! Museum’s blue poles cause a whole new row, The Age online, 12 December 2003, viewed 14 May 2011,

National Gallery of Australia undated, Jackson Pollock Blue Poles (Number 11, 1952) [image], viewed 14 May 2011,

Reed D (ed.) 2002, Tangled destinies: National Museum of Australia, Images Publishing Group, Mulgrave, Victoria

Sudjic D 2001, Australia looks back in allegory at its inglorious past, The Observer, 4 March 2001, viewed 13 May 2011,