Alex Mankiewicz, Byron Bay
With all the back and forth about the ‘public art’ on the Bayshore Drive roundabout, I’m surprised there has been no mention of what it is made of.
Not the steel evidently proposed in the EOI, but aluminium, one of the most environmentally destructive minerals to be mined.
As the first thing visitors and locals returning home see coming into Byron, the irony is striking. A place known globally as a centre for green, eco, conscious thought represented by a huge monument to degradation, pollution and emissions.
No I’m not a fan of it visually, but that is beside the point. It’s stunning Council is proposing to throw good money after bad to add more toxic birds to the work.
At the very least the substitution of material from what was submitted and approved, should have disqualified the artist and work and prompted reconsideration. It’s not too late.
