A determined public art programme in Perth has created an outdoor gallery in the upbeat, forward-thinking city, Pam Jones writes.
Geometric towers arch over pavements, and brass kangaroos hop alongside businessmen and financiers in the streets of clean, green, art-loving Perth.
They are some of the more than 100 sculptures and contemporary works on show for visitors and residents through a multifaceted public art programme supported by various tiers of government and private enterprise.
It's a boon for artists and artlovers alike, an outdoor gallery of sculptures, light installations and temporary exhibitions from established and emerging Western Australian artists in a city where creativity and forward thinking is exhibited at every turn.
Lorenna Grant's Arch provides a futuristic focal point to the cultural/dining area of Northbridge, where other landmark works also tap into the artlover's psyche.
Der Rufer (the caller), by Gerhard Marcks, welcomes visitors to the Perth Cultural Centre, which contains the Art Gallery of Western Australia, itself containing a wealth of artworks including contemporary works by Aboriginal artists and sculptures by Renoir and Rodin.
Unfolding Lives, by Judith Forrest, takes viewers back to the childhood origami-like game in which folded paper is opened and shut to present a range of possible scripts and scenarios.
The text-inscribed piece, done in collaboration with author Terri-ann White, is a memorial acknowledging children who suffered abuse and neglect during their time in state care.
The artworks are a combination of local, state and federal government, public institution and private enterprise-funded and provide both a public and private experience for thinking tourists in an urban landscape.
Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi says councils past and present have been fuelled by a belief that public art helps to define a city and add interest and character.
''Public art has been around for a long time and has been representative of the times. In the past decade or so we have seen increasing examples of public art far more diverse in form and character. It shouldn't all be council-driven and developers should be encouraged to give something back to the community by way of public art.''
While much of the development in the city centre is high-rise, it's at ground level that people really engage with buildings, Scaffidi says.
Perth's local government authority (the City of Perth), through its planning committee and design advisory committee (whose membership includes external professionals), has worked with developers and architects to enhance the interface between built form and people.
''Street art and public art are an important part of that equation.''
Many of the artworks have been commissioned through the Percent for Art programme, a state government programme started in 1989 and the first of its kind in Australia.
Supported by most local councils, including the City of Perth, the programme sees 1% of the construction budget for new public works over $2 million go to commission public artworks by Western Australian artists.
The Bunnies, by Kat Black and Jasper Cook, accompanied the City of Perth's Key City Worker Housing project in East Perth.
The refurbishment of the central Forrest Pl was accompanied by the popular social magnet The Water Labyrinth, by Danish artist Jeppe Hein, and the City of Perth Library under construction will also showcase a new work by a local artist, Andrew Nicholls, his first major large-scale public art commission.
A clutch of other City of Perth art programmes is installing more art in the city.
TransArt (for established artists) and TransArt Transition (for young emerging artists) is a commission programme for temporary art interventions based on innovative practice across media boundaries.
In 2013, the Lighthouse project commissioned artist Trevor Vickers to develop a new work to be translated into light using the existing bands of LED on Council House's exterior walls.
And the City of Perth's two Light Locker Art Spaces enable young artists to take ownership of public light-box cabinet exhibition spaces to deliver monthly exhibitions in discreet locations throughout the city, encouraging them to move beyond the walls of a gallery or their studios and engage with the reality of a public space.
But it's the large, high-profile sculptures that are the most visible in Perth's portfolio.
In the financial district of St George's Tce, several multi-piece sculptures merge with the cut and thrust of business.
Businessmen through the ages march through the eras in Footsteps in Time - by Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith, of Smith Sculptors - outside St Martin's Centre, symbolising the businessmen who built the busy CBD.
A block away, the Smiths' Kangaroos hop humbly along, the much-photographed marsupials steadfast in heavy bronze.
In Fremantle, King's Park and other areas around Perth other modern artworks inspire, rubbing shoulders with older, more traditional sculptures that still hold their own.
So a true-to-life form of Alexander Forrest, prominent Western Australian explorer, politician, investor and mayor of Perth from 1892-95, is but a stone's throw from a contemporary, cloak-like, 18m impression of St George slaying the dragon on the front lawn of St George's Cathedral (Ascalon, by Marcus Canning and Christian de Vietri), a nice fit in a city that is a breath of fresh air for those who like to take in art on a regular basis.
• Pam Jones
