Chit Chat

Chit Chat [Philip Spelman. 2005. Fabricated steel]

In front of the AusAID office, shown yesterday, is another Philip Spelman sculpture. According to the sculptor:

"Bright colours are essential to draw viewers' eyes to my works across long distances - whether they're in the city or in the landscape. And it gets them photographed too; though it wasn't that great during the last election in Canberra to see television ads from the Opposition (to Chief Minister Jon Stanhope) showing my sculpture with the slogan: "He's closing schools - but buying art'!"

Canberra has two bright red Spelman sculptures (this one and another further along London Circuit) and a blue one next to the Convention Centre, and they certainly do draw the eye!

This sculpture, Chit Chat, was acquired by the Koundouris Group and CRT Group as part of their arts support program in 2007, according to the plaque. Philip Spelman has said that these large scale works take 300 to 400 hours of work over about six months to complete, so he has a 'day job' as well - he is the Technical Officer in the Glass Workshop of the Australian National University's School of Art.