Public art in Como Beach

I enjoyed learning about public art in my City of South Perth on a recent bus tour, which included a short stroll near my home in Como. Most of the public art on display was already familiar to me, but one of my comments during the tour was that it was poorly documented and little known. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts and some pictures. Como is a large suburb of South Perth, which is in turn immediately south of the City of Perth, Western Australia. My focus here is on Como Beach, adjacent to the Swan River (and a busy freeway) and all within a few minutes’ walk of my home. The picture below shows part of the beach, and the iconic jetty, the longest in the Swan River, once a playground for those living down here.

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Strolling down the main street, Preston Street, the most obvious reminder of location is the Cygnet Theatre, long a landmark of Como and still a functioning cinema (or, at least, about to be again post COVID-19). This wonderful, pink, heritage-listed art deco building is not technically described as ‘public art’ – as it is architecture, not art – but it comes pretty close to that in my opinion.

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So, what is ‘public art’? In a nutshell, it seems to comprise works of art that are available for the public to enjoy. There is a surprising amount of it around, once you open your eyes a bit, and this is especially so in the City of South Perth, which now requires builders of large projects to devote 1% of their budget to some agreed public art (and they, in turn, devote 2% of their budget for large projects to public art). There are, of course, works of public art around that have been provided gratuitously, rather than as a direct result of the City policy. If the Cygnet Theatre is not an example of public art, then certainly the murals on its wall is an example:

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The unmistakable portrait of film director Alfred Hitchcock adorns a wall of the theatre, nestling among the parking area, the foliage and the cars – looking down on them with that famous sneer. Murals have become more common these days, and I really like this one. There is another mural nearby, in fact, which also certainly qualifies as public art, on the wall of a Malaysian restaurant adjacent to the theatre:

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An otherwise ugly wall on the Nasi Lemak restaurant has been transformed into a playful and colourful piece of art work. I like the large Wayang Kulit (shadow puppets, used in Java for plays, with the puppets used to cast shadows on a white screen. The characters are from the ancient Hindu tales, such as the Mahabarata, and are all well-known to Javanese people.) But I also like the addition of the kids, playing with the puppets, and acting as puppet masters. I learned in Valparaiso, Chile (explore my website to see the details) that murals are used to deter graffiti, as street artists are unlikely to despoil the work of other artists; seems to be a win-win strategy for enhancing the environment.

Continuing down the street a little, there are some strange-looking objects (which I learned that some people had mistaken for parking meters!) in various places. Here are some of them:

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On closer inspection, it becomes clearer that these artworks are connected to the history of the area, and in particular the nearby theatre. I heard one local observing that his children thought the green objects were guns, but they are in fact reminders and representations of the olde world film projectors once used by the nearby theatre. Close inspection of the film reels also gives a reminder of the historical past of Como Beach, with its jetty a popular swimming spot, long before people had easy access to Perth’s beaches. Indeed, the path to the swimming spot is nearby, with a gleaming white bridge over the freeway:

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Is this an example of public art? Apparently not, as it’s architecture, not art, but it certainly tweaks some of my aesthetic impulses, especially with the blue Perth sky as background. But before we cross the bridge, there are some public art works near its base:

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The shell shown here is a reminder of the days in which Como Beach was a playground, and children could collect shells from the river shore. It has been erected gratuitously by the people who built the adjacent small apartment building, presumably for others to enjoy and to pay some homage to the locale. I had seen it before – and enjoyed it – but had not noticed the artists’ inscriptions carved in the base. Anne Neill and Steve Tepper produced this for others to enjoy, but I did not realise that until recently. Makes me wonder about how artists get recognised adequately.

The other two images here show some sculptures at the base of the bridge, also reminding us of the past. The boat represents the many boats that used to visit this spot in the river, both locals and ferries, while the wheel is a reminder that trams used to come to this place, bringing people to a family swimming. picnicking, fishing and prawning spot, long before other forms of transportation. (I had also seen these often, as I walk over the bridge often, but not really connected them to the past. How can that be easily done, unobtrusively and aesthetically? There is an inscription on the work – not shown here – that I had not previously read.) There’s something ironic about these memories of a bygone age sitting quietly next to a freeway full of racing traffic … But let’s go over the bridge …

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The bridge itself contains some public art works, representing in various ways the ferries and the jetties around the Swan River, as Como Jetty used to be a ferry stop and the jetty itself is still visible to all in the river, or driving past on the freeway. The names of the actual ferries are all there, so that a stroll over the bridge is a walk down memory lane. Well, not quite: most people strolling over the bridge are not actually ‘remembering’ those days, but hopefully learning about them. This bridge was constructed with government funds, so the art works were an agreed part of the project. Crossing over the busy freeway, we get to Como Beach itself:

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The silhouette sculptures on the beach are reminders of an age gone by, when people travelled to Como Beach to meet up with friends, and children played on the shore. The jetty is still there, of course, but the crowds have diminished … funny how planting a freeway can discourage people to stroll down to the river. But all is not lost, as there are now playground and sandpit renovations being completed, new seating areas and the picture at the top illustrates that picnic space is returning; so watch this space. A pleasant spot to watch the sun go down, ride a bicycle into the city or just sit and think about the passing traffic – cars, yachts or pelicans …

Back over the bridge is the most recent addition to the local collection of public art, a beautiful statue commissioned by the owners of a new building a block away from mine:

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A statue is more like what is normally regarded as ‘art’, and I think this is a lovely statue by Anna Ruwhi, whom I think is a local Iraqi immigrant, was completed just a few months ago in 2020. The Inscription in the base notes, “The two human figures, a man and a woman, pay homage to the multicultural tapestry of the South Perth community, and how its blend of people live, love and interact.” I couldn’t put it better myself, except to note my delight at the pelican joining the man and the woman, as pelicans are emblematic of the Como Jetty – and I have often marvelled at their patience in sitting atop one of the light towers. A lovely statue, which would probably not exist but for the City policy of requiring some public art contributions by developers to the local environment. I am pleased that such a policy is in effect.

Statues can be problematic, of course, as recent events in the USA have illustrated, but they can also enhance the environment wonderfully for the general public. I recall reading once that, other things being equal, a city was likelier to be better if it had more statues, and my meanderings around London, Paris, New York and many other places attest to this. Statues of old dead men can be problematic if they reflect a colonial, racist or oppressive past (remembering the statue of Saddam Hussein toppling or the agonised debates about Cecil Rhodes in Oxford), but somehow I think that lovely statues like this will be safe from the tides of political or social change. I hope so, anyway.

Wandering home from my stroll, I can’t help but wonder about what is, and what isn’t ‘public art’. Public art can remind us of our past, as well as our present, can tell stories or just enhance our outlook. So building decorations, verge plantings and even plants visible to the public all have aesthetic elements to them, even if they don’t come within the City’s definitions of ‘public art’. It all reminds me of how lucky I am to live here, as well as how pleased I am that public art is part of my surroundings, and that the City of South Perth is working to keep it that way, and improve it.

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I hope that you enjoyed my tour; but it’s more fun to do it for yourself, if you happen to live close enough to do so.