Irish-born but Australian-raised, artist John Kelly recounts his childhood in Sunshine with palpable fondness.
“I once took nine wickets for 24 in the under-16s and made 100 in a winning juniors’ grand final,” he writes in an email from his home of the past 10 years on Ireland’s Reen peninsular.
Born in Cork, Kelly moved to Sunshine with his parents and six siblings at just six months old. While his brothers and sisters moved away, his elderly parents remain in the suburb.
The artist made it known earlier this year that he would like to mark his family’s presence in Sunshine with one of his iconic bronze sculptures of a cow, not unlike his sculpture commissioned by the City of Paris which is now installed at Docklands.
“What better way than a sculpture from a series that not only engages Australian art history through William Dobell and his World War II camouflage cows but also my own history? This work has been exhibited all over
the world but never in the place that formed me.”
But his wish has been dealt a blow. Brimbank council failed to win a VicArts grant to help purchase the five-metre-high piece, and is now seeking sponsors to fill the funding void.
Neither council nor artist will reveal how much it’s being offered for, but a maquette-size sculpture named “Three Stacked Cows” is being advertised online by British auction house Bonhams for $90,000 to $120,000.
A spokesman says the council is finalising a sponsorship proposal.
