'You know nothing about art' - Lord Mayor serves fiery sermon on the value of art

Crown Street Mall’s controversial palm tree sparked a philosophical debate at Wollongong City Council’s July meeting when Councillor Dom Figliomini put forward a motion to remove the artwork – at a cost of $1 million.

“I’ll get my flak jacket first,” Cr Figliomini said when he introduced the motion to this week’s council meeting.

“I was astounded at the cost to remove it.

“Annual maintenance is about $35,000, so neither option is cheap.

“The cost of removal would pay for itself in 10-15 years.”

Council staff told the meeting that much of the annual maintenance costs came from the irrigation system that feeds and waters the palms, as well as regular engineering and geotechnical inspections.

The artwork, Illawarra Placed Landscape, by Mike Hewson, was commissioned on the recommendation of public art curator Barbara Flynn in 2017.

The entire piece includes the playground, sandstone boulders, a swing and seats formed from the horizontal trunks of two of the palms.

A total of four cabbage palm trees aged between 75 and 100 years old were used, and all were rescued from being destroyed by timber logging extraction.

Mr Hewson has installations in cities across the world, from Melbourne to Moscow, Christchurch in New Zealand and Harlem in the US.

He also holds a civil engineering degree – it turns out it’s not that easy to put a palm on a pole and keep it alive.

Not all councillors were fans of the artwork, but all baulked at the cost of removal.

Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, however, issued a blistering defence of the piece.

“You know nothing about art,” he said.

“We spent $90,000 restoring one artwork in our gallery last year – art costs a lot.

“And it is worth it. It is our heritage. I wonder what planet some of you are on.

“With all due respect I have to walk past some bloody ugly sculptures every day, like that brutalist thing out the front and a bloody rugby player.

“The role of art is to challenge, excite, engage and stretch our visual imagination. This piece was designed for the mall, to introduce elements of our landscape to the horrendous geometrics of all those basalt tiles.

“It’s where it’s meant to be, and to put it somewhere else is to destroy it.

“The achievements of this artist are acknowledged worldwide – be careful not to dismiss it.

“Let’s get our head out of this space and enjoy what’s been given to us.”

Cr Figliomini took offence to the claim he did not understand the value of art.

“The value of art is what somebody is willing to pay for it – and you can’t tell me someone would pay the same amount for a palm up a pole as they would for the Mona Lisa,” he said.

“If you get a kick out of demeaning people I won’t lose sleep over it. These comments are not what I would expect as part of a council debate.”

The motion was lost, with all councillors except Dom Figliomini and John Dorahy voting against it.