Always 2016

KING, Louiseann

Registration number

1636571

Artist/maker

KING, Louiseann

Title

Always

Production date

2016

Medium

brass

Dimensions (H x W x D)

30 x 80 x 5 cm (image, dimensions variable); 48 x 99 x 15 cm (frame)

Credit line

Purchased 2016
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
© Courtesy of the artist

Keywords

Louiseann King, Forever, Always, 2016, Lovelocks, sculpture, brass, Craft Victoria, City of Melbourne, Evan Walker Bridge

Summary

The Love Locks Project, initiated by the City of Melbourne in partnership with Craft Victoria, saw 5 local artists transform the padlocks removed from the Evan Walker Bridge in Southbank into everlasting works of art and jewellery. The resultant works were displayed at the City Gallery in August 2016. The removal of almost 20,000 love locks was necessary due to safety concerns and damage to the bridge, which was never intended to carry so much added weight.

At the conclusion of the exhibition, the work 'Forever & Always' was selected to become part of the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection.

Artist statement

'Forever & Always takes as its beginning the words so often engraved upon the Love Locks. Sometimes these words were alone and sometimes accompanied by other text including the first names of couples, initials, a date, a place name, a special event or a significant phrase.

In gathering together the locks engraved with 'Forever' and 'Always' it became clear that the engraving was done by one person. I was touched by the thought of this person repeatedly engraving 'Forever' and 'Always' mantra-like. A hope. A devotion.

There's a universality and monumentality in the sentiments of 'Forever' and 'Always'. In the gesture of engraving these words and in the materiality of metal one spurns the inevitably of endings and the inescapability of loss. These ideas are central to the making of Forever & Always which was produced through enlarging the text engraved upon the locks and constructing a space into which the molten Lovelocks were poured - the sentiments, hopes and dreams of so many coming together to make an object that exceeds its very limits - metal pouring over and around the text holding the space for Forever & Always.' - Louiseann King, 2016