Newport artist Robert Hague last week installed an eight-tonne monument on the beach for the Lorne Sculpture Biennale.
At 6.2 metres high and 6.1 metres wide, Tenjen is the largest piece in this year’s show. Hague said the title is an archaic word for “obelisk” and roughly translates as “protector”.
From a dais of concrete steps rises a steel tower that bursts forth into jet wings.
Hague says the work has classical architectural features and is aimed at unifying the ideas of classical architecture with the power of the machine age.
“There’s no central message to the work. The idea is that it’s a work that incorporates a lot of different ideas and allows an open interpretation for the viewer,” he said.
“The wings to me are symbolic of the universal dream of flying. Also, the dream of falling. That can represent hope and that can also represent power and, I guess, fear.”
After the month-long exhibition is over on March 30, the fate of the sculpture is unknown, but Hague says its likely final destination is the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen.
