A Quick Visit ToThe McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery.

A Quick Visit ToThe McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery.

The Tree of Life

I reckon I’ve visited just about every garden there is to visit in the area, many twice. The appeal of a well maintained park or garden is a joy to stroll through. Whether it be the 1930s splendour of the Alfred Nicholas Gardens or the tight paths and sloping lawns of the Tim Neville Arboretum Boronia.

Something from Dr Suess

We are lucky to have so many within a short drive on any given day. But there are more places on my list that I have been neglecting. One of these is the McClelland Sculpture Park just outside of Frankston. I had passed it so many times whilst visiting friends in Mt Eliza or Mornington and from Boronia it’s a quick 20 minute trip down the Eastern Freeway and you are there, so no more excuses.

Our visit was a short one as we had to be somewhere later in the afternoon and since we were going virtually passed the front gate we had to pop in to at least have a look at the amazing sculptures that we had been told that were scattered around the property, and if that was impressive we’d come back for a more detailed visit later when the weather got warmer.

The Massive Rams Head

McClelland Park is a treasure of a place. It has a vibrant artist community, beautiful lake and gardens, café, meeting halls and gallery. It is well established and recognized as a premier art site. I was amazed when I discovered that the gallery has been open since 1971.

Driving up into the car park, we weren’t sure where to go so we headed towards some buildings which turned out to be the Guild huts, where different crafts from pottery, woodturning, lapidary, spinning and weaving as well as the more established painting and sculpting. The park is divided up into two areas, a bushy trail up towards the back where the carpark is situated and the more formal lawns and ornamental lake up to the front where the gallery and café are.

The Big Bug

The MightyHammer

The huge Pencil box

 As we walked between the buildings we saw people having meeting, talks were being given and light lunches were all laid out for social catch ups later. That’s when we stumbled on the first of the sculptures. The bush trail was a delight of hidden artworks that appeared around every corner. Many of them massive but all of them interesting. My favourite in this area would have to be the traffic light which looked like it had been plucked out of a major intersection by some unknown force and dumped in the middle of a group of trees. Mind you, it was completely functional, changing 

Someone parked their Rhino here.

every minute or so and telling pedestrians to cross. That was one of the amazing things about these works, many were interactive and were powered with cleverly concealed or placed power supplies. The scale of sculptures made you wonder how they installed them where they were. I was not paying attention to the given names of the sculptures mainly because most of the time I couldn’t see the relevance between name and creation (they were pretty vague), so I’ll make them up. There was the big ram's skull, the giant pencil box and woodpile and the wonky tower as well the huge hammer left on the big stack of rocks. Some sculptures played tunes as you walked passed them while other pieces looked like something out of a Dr.Suess storybook.  All curly and covered in hairy grass.

The Fabulous Traffic Light

The Worlds Easiest Maze

I was really enjoying myself and thought about being seriously late for our other appointment but a commitment is a commitment so we headed back to the car via the café and the lawn. That’s where we came across possibly McClelland’s most famous artwork, which I

managed to totally ignore on the road in. The majestic silvery Tree of Life. This free-flowing sculpture stands at least 30 metres tall and sits in the middle of a large lawned area and moves in the wind like an alien gum tree, like mercury in water. There is something cathartic about watching its limbs twist and turn as if it were made of hot plasticine. The trip was well worth it for this sight alone.

On that note, we had to leave, but a return visit is definitely on the cards. Next time with a picnic lunch and a visit to the gallery.

The McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery is situated at 390 McClelland Dr, Langwarrin VIC 3910 and is open Tuesday to Sunday. www.mcclellandgallery.com
originally published in the BBCN Issue 280 Agust 2019