SHERIDAN, Margaret

Alumnae Award Sculpture – Women’s College, Sydney University.

THE BRIEF:

The brief required the sculpture to incorporate the College Logo or Motto and to be bronze or stainless steel.

PROPOSAL:

I wanted to use the College motto TOGETHER as the foundation for my concept.  I remember entering College, a nearly 17 year old girl from the country NSW, one of the first country Coed high school students to go to College.   College was an opening for all my dreams.  It was a place of an extraordinary spirit of togetherness, of intellectual stimulation, emotional and social growth.  I have rarely, since my sixe years at College, had such a confluence.

A few years ago I worked as a Psychiatrist in Southern Alberta, Canada, for three years.  Part of my work was with indigenous North American Blackfoot Indians.  These people were struggling to find their soul.  In my reading I came across the North American Indian belief of The Sacred Hoop, or Wheel, symbolising the cycles of life.  The Wheel encompasses Spirit, Body, Emotion and Mind.  The community elders were working together to develop a renewed sense of belonging in their dispirited young.

The Wheel symbolised togetherness to me.  It needed elements of separation, of entry and exit.  I decided to split the whole into two parts but still retain the sense of wholeness.  Part One: The smaller part represented the Fresher entering into the influential sphere of College life.  Part Two: The larger part represented the culmination of shared experiences, intellectual growth and mentorship.

The sculpture has both an entrance and an exit.  The two parts overlap as they form the whole.  The exit from the larger is into the world beyond, the next phase of growth and learning.

The circle is upwardly distorted to represent the inspirational nature of learning.

The sculpture is Bronze on a Sandstone Base.  It was cast by Australian Bronze.  Clive Calder and my son Michael installed the bronze plates.  Fred Alwahan and his son Steve helped me to install the sandstone.

This was a major undertaking as the block had to be pulled up a slope, then over a parquetry flooring, around part of the courtyard and over lawn.

This was my first public sculpture and the process from marquette to final installation was a series of learning curves with deadlines and coordination.

To contact this sculptor, please email the Sculptors Society’s Secretary Eva Chant at sculpt1@bigpond.net.au