ANGEL WINGS. 

The original Sculpture-by-the-Sea. (Sydney).

Angel Wings. B&W. 6”X4”. copperplate. Bondi. (The original Sculpture-by-the-Sea) along with source photo.

Down from these cliffs near Bondi there used to be this sculpture made with corrugated iron and old bicycle parts jutting out from the rocks by the sea. This endearing iconic ‘home-made’ art work existed well before the more well-known mainstream sculpture-by-the-sea. It’s a great shame it no longer exists.

It had been there for a long while and it has always concerned me that it was pulled down to make way for the annual fortnight sculpture show.

I also wonder about the homeless guy who used to live amidst these cliffs and was eventually ‘evicted’ by the council for being an ‘eyesore’. One would read a small placard near his many belongings and sleeping equipment strewn along the cliff rocks that they were not part of the open air sculpture exhibition. It’s also shame that the homeless people who used to sleep by the Bondi Pavillion were also finally forced to ‘move on’. They were inconveniencing no one and they had a right to shelter — especially amidst so much affluence.

Both acts callous.

It also somewhat ‘bemused’ me to read a newspaper article how some Bondi joggers had complained about the huge crowds that always come to see the Sculptures-by-the-Sea as they can’t run properly through the throngs of people and actually wished this popular exhibition ceased.

You have to prepare to go early to Sculptures-by-the-Sea as the parking is a nightmare. I have gone with friends who always choose to park at far away Waverly Cemetery (which has many angels by the sea) and walk around to Bronte then to Tamarama Beach where the exhibition begins with sculptures on the sand.

Yet, it has always puzzled me why there were protests against the building of a train station to Bondi itself. At the moment one has to get off at Bondi Junction and catch a bus down Bondi Road to go to this famed beach. It’s an inconvenience brought on by the claim that if there was a train station at Bondi there would be ‘more people’ coming and there would be ‘more development’. Yet, one feels that there is an underlying insularity whereby ‘outsiders’ — especially from the western suburbs of Sydney — are not really welcome to spoil the superficial ‘alternative’ illusion of Bondi’s glitzy image.

So many cars. One also wonders about the increased carbon emissions by the sea…

“Third World isn’t it? “ I once remarked to an English tourist. I was in a big crowd of people insufferably waiting for a latish Bondi bus after deciding to leave the car at home.

“Yes, it is a bit…” he sanguinely replied.

Oh well, I guess at the end of the day one could always hope to grow angel wings to avoid the maddening crowds…