Press Releases
| Apollonian – Dionysian
Artist: Angus Taylor Production and casting: Dionysus Sculpture Works Of the three sculptures produced for the Irene Mall, Apollonian – Dionysian is perhaps the most traditional in approach. Two cast-steel male figures squat with a board game between them, seeming to pose philosophical questions as to their relationship to one another and to the public bustling around them. The pieces were first modelled in clay over a steel armature and the clay was then allowed to dry to the point that it cracked away from the armature in places. The resultant imperfect forms were then cast in steel and stainless steel respectively and both display a polished metal surface detail that not only links them together, but also makes reference to Guy Du Toit’s – another renowned artist involved in the public sculpture project in the Mall – works. Taylor says of this work that he wanted the appearance of the sculptures to refer to an African tradition in which the body shape is kept relatively simple and stylised but surface decoration is dramatised by the addition of symbolic shapes and objects. The work is situated next to an outside restaurant and lends an informal air to the setting. Western and African histories seem to merge in the common act of playing a board game. Irene Mall has broken new ground in a number of key areas. It is one of the few developments in South Africa in which a generous budget for public art was factored in at the outset. The developers have avoided sheep mentality and have designed a complex that takes full advantage of our glorious climate. And perhaps most importantly, the developers have trusted Taylor sufficiently to allow him the freedom to create playful and interactive works that thumb their noses at old-time public sculpture and are a joy to adults and children alike. |
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Some Cow Facts
- 1,200 construction workers built the shopping centre.
- The Tower and its water reservoir is a new landmark in Irene.
- The centre has 95 segmental arches in the brickwork.