Day 49: Art and park

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Kangaroo Point Park
Venus rising

WHAT a surprise. Naturally I had heard of Kangaroo Point but mainly in terms of abseiling down its cliff faces. It is the park at the top of the cliffs that caught me off guard.

It’s a magnificent area with some stunning artworks, green space, playground and café all enjoying brilliant city and river views and all quite an unexpected surprise as I had no idea it was there tucked away off the busy South Brisbane roadways.

Of course, it is possible to walk there from the South Bank but my Brismania adventures haven’t got that far yet.

I now learn that the Kangaroo Point Park was opened in January 2010, after the 9828 sq TAFE college site was redeveloped for public use.

It was all part of the Q150 celebrations of 2009, which marked 150 years since Queensland officially separated from New South Wales.

Kangaroo Point Park
Walks with a view

It’s an area that really does belong to the people as, sitting on the cliff edge, it has fabulous views of the city, the botanic gardens on the opposite side of the river, the river itself and Story Bridge and that’s just its natural attributes.

The artworks that have been installed since are definitely worth a look too.

Kangaroo Point Park
Great city views from the top of the cliffs.

Most outstanding among them, mainly because of its height, is called “Venus Rising: Out of the Water and into the Light” which was installed in January 2012. It is a torpedo shaped spiral rising 23 metres in stainless steel.

Kangaroo Point Park
Pleasant paths to enjoy the view

It is by internationally recognised British artist Wolfgang Buttress and is made up of hundreds of interlocking rings and polished tubes. Step inside at the base and you can look up through the spirals to the sky. It’s amazing.

The story goes that the first fabrication work was done in the UK. It was shipped to Brisbane in three sections, and assembled on site by the artist who also has public works in the UK, Europe and the US.

From Venus Rising, a path gently rises through “Seven Versions of the Sun” by Daniel Boyd. These are seven separate arbours with bright electroplated aluminium laser cut with seven different patterns creating motifs of the sun.

It’s very clever and casts shadows which form “a visual connection to the trajectory of the sun, the motifs are there to trigger awareness of seasons following the position of the earth’s rotational axis.”

Kangaroo Point Park
A bit of history adds to the walk

OK, that’s a bit deep for me. It is just rather cool to look at with all the different shapes.

Kangaroo Point Park
Playground with a difference

Along the walk, there are a collection of plaques set in the stone wall with dates and a listing of key events in Queensland history. Informative, interesting and educational.

The playground isn’t ordinary either, with a series of colourful “worms” by Alexander Knox called “untitled – wormholes. 2010”.

Kangaroo Point Park
Patterns of the sun

It is said to have been conceived “as a sort of tactile time machine where people, especially children, can discover the site and its histories through
a combination of free form exploratory play and immersion in a historically evocative soundscape.”

Whew. I just thought it was colourful and eye-catching and completely missed the travel in time and space bit.

There are also two “green” installations which cleverly use trees to create art.

Kangaroo Point Park
Casting shadows

All in all, Kangaroo Point Park is quite amazing and just makes me wonder how I didn’t know about it before now.

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