Beyond the Ocean of Existence 1993

Summary

Location: As of 2019 the work is in storage for the construction of the Metro Tunnel project.

A patinated bronze sculpture, Beyond the Ocean of Existence comprises a single large ball surrounded by eight bronze coils. A series of smaller balls and lengths of column, both triangular and circular in cross-section, surmount these coils. At the sculpture’s top is a stylised angel. The work is a mounted on a granite plinth of dressed and polished blocks.

Born in Hobart, Loretta Quinn studied sculpture at the Tasmanian School of Art and the Victorian College of the Arts. The City of Melbourne commissioned Quinn to create Beyond the Ocean of Existence as part of the Swanston Walk redevelopment in 1992; the sculpture was unveiled the following year. The city also commissioned Quinn’s Within Three Worlds, located in Princes Park. Beyond the Ocean of Existence demonstrates Quinn’s reflective approach, and it is a work replete with religious references. There is a sense of ‘folk religion’ in much of her art, and whether the symbols derive from the mystery of a Latin mass or the animist universe, a Celtic myth or a Japanese garden, she says they are ‘visual references to which others will relate’.

Beyond the Ocean of Existence was removed from its location at the corner of Flinders Lane and Swanston Street in connection with Metro Tunnel Project works. It is due to be returned upon completion of the project.