The winner of the Immigration Place select design ideas competition was announced Harmony Day – setting the stage for an inspiring installation in the heart of the national capital and highlighting the day’s theme of Australian cultural diversity.
Immigration Place will be a nationally significant commemorative place in the Parliamentary Zone in Canberra. Immigration Place aspires to be a place where Australians and visitors to our country can reflect on and celebrate our migrant history and the contribution of immigrants and immigration to our nation’s community and culture.
It will be a meeting place, a focus for collecting and sharing stories and a place of welcome for migrants and new citizens. In selecting the winner, the Jury – comprised of internationally recognised eminent design professionals and chaired by Professor Kerry Clare – observed that the proposal by the Callum Morton team ‘inspired the imagination, articulated symbolism with outstanding artistic quality, and had the greatest potential for development’.
‘There is an exceptionally lyrical and powerful quality to this proposal that fascinates, provokes interest and demands exploration. The sculptural expression presented interprets and melds immigration with our indigenous history and looks forward to a progressive Australian future. ‘In the context of the migration experience, the shape evokes the oceans that were crossed, the emotional ups and downs of this transformative experience, the ripples of change that travel down the generations, and the Australian landscape’ the Jury noted in its report.
With the selection of the winning design concept, Immigration Place Australia will now work with the Callum Morton team on design development to resolve the work to the satisfaction and requirements of the National Capital Authority. Source by Immigration Place.
Location: Canberra, Australia
Project Team: Callum Morton (artist)
Charlotte Day (curator)
Bob Earl (Oculus – urban designer and landscape architect)
Nigel Bertram (NMBW – architect)
Nikos Papstergiadis (writer/thinker immigration)
Paul House (Ngambri custodian)
Andre Bonnice (Monash Art Projects)
Peter Felicetti (structural and civil engineer) and Daniella Trimboli
Year: 2015