2000

Central to the sculpture is a crane-like skeletal structure, combined with video monitors and a series of metal mesh panels. It houses state of the art surveillance equipment which scans the passing shoppers and projects images via banks of flat screen monitors. These images form the flesh of the overall construction. The public can message the pod door, which closes on the hour to reveal a continuous poem of communication.

The Galeries Victoria shopping precinct forms an enclosed street scene which reinstates the ”Sydney Lane” into the urban fabric. The sculpture site is at the centre of the block and forms a void revealing the below ground level. The “Exoskeleton Tower – Reach” sculptural installation penetrates the void at all levels and attempts to draw the pedestrian upwards towards the glass roof.

The form of the sculpture is related to complex movements of the body – a kind of gestural geometry. As a construction it is a counterpoint to the architecture of the building. The sculpture attempts to  decipher  the action of the street. The “Exoskeleton Tower – Reach” project aims to create a sculpture which mediates between public and private space. Crowning the structure is a “pod-like” minimum architecture. This little house is a potential habitation in the public space of the city. It is symbolic of the “cubbyhouse” we carry with us in our mind from childhood. It draws the viewer upwards in a desire to work it out. The viewer can only inhabit the pod with his/her mind. The machine marks time by receiving written messages from the public and revealing them as a poem. The door of the Pod is open for 55 minutes of each hour – closing on the hour for the remaining 5 minutes to display the messages. LED text will scroll across the pod door in a series of lines. Participants can wait to see their messages or play the game and leave a temporary mark in the public domain of the city. Podium Level 1 will provide a touch screen for public interaction. The screen will limit the participant to a particular palette and format within which they have freedom to create a message in the form of a sentence or series of phrases including their ?rst name.

The project represents a move forward in site speci?c sculpture, both for its scale and because the work relates intimately to its context without being subservient.