Sydney’s Woollahra Council’s continuing commitment to enhancing its public spaces through art is demonstrated in the recent commission of a major new work by artist Lindy Lee titled One Bright Pearl, located in the picturesque Blackburn Gardens at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Double Bay NSW 2028, and on view since 14 December 2022.
One Bright Pearl is the most significant commission by Woollahra Council, with principal support from The Carla Zampatti Foundation and other donors. The work was selected by Woollahra Council’s Public Art Panel comprising the Mayor of Woollahra Cr Susan Wynne, former Mayor Cr Toni Zeltzer, Director of Art Gallery New South Wales Michael Brand, Jillian Broadbent AC, David Gonski AC, Scott Perkins, and curator Holly Williams.
Woollahra Council Public Art Panel – Blackburn Gardens artwork commission: Lindy Lee, One Bright Pearl. Photograph: Steven Siewert. Courtesy the artist and Woollahra Council, Sydney
Symbolic of the diversity of Woollahra’s community, One Bright Pearl reflects on new beginnings and modern migration. Lee’s practice explores both her Australian heritage and her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, philosophies that see humanity and nature as inextricably linked. She employs chance and spontaneity to produce a galaxy of images that embody the intimate connections between human existence and the cosmos. Her works are deeply meditative, often revealing themselves through time.
One Bright Pearl, a 260kg mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture measuring two metres in diameter, forms one in a series of five works by Lee, with the first in this edition installed in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
Woollahra Council Public Art Panel – Blackburn Gardens artwork commission: Lindy Lee, One Bright Pearl. Photograph: Steven Siewert. Courtesy the artist and Woollahra Council, Sydney
Lee said:
“One Bright Pearl is inspired by the ancient Chinese story of the Dragon’s Ball, which is a symbol of universal wholeness, well-being, wisdom and spiritual power. During the day, the sculpture’s surface, with its mirror brightness, absorbs and reflects the fleeting and ever-changing pageantry of the surrounding world: the movements of people, sky, landscape, birds etc. At night, the work will be internally lit to allow light to flow back out into the world. The sculpture’s different changing daytime and night-time qualities embodies the cyclical nature of time.”
Alex Schuman, on behalf of Principal Donor, The Carla Zampatti Foundation, added: “We support this sculpture as a celebration of Carla Zampatti’s outstanding career and life-long mission to empower women, champion multiculturalism and support the arts. It is an honour to support Lindy Lee’s spectacular artwork and her contribution to those same treasured values.”
