Island Wave 2003

YOUNG, Lisa

Registration number

1091859

Artist/maker

YOUNG, Lisa

Title

Island Wave

Production date

2003

Medium

mild steel, paint, concrete footing

Dimensions (H x W x D)

22 fins; 270 cm (fin height); 500 cm (fin length); 34 cm (fin width); 2.5 cm; (steel thickness); 31 m (approx. overall span of sculpture)

Credit line

Commissioned by the City of Melbourne, 2003
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection

Keywords

Island Wave, Lisa Young, Franklin Street, Queen Street, Queen Victoria Market, 2003, Newmarket Reserve, Kensington

Summary

Location: Newmarket Reserve, Kensington

Island Wave is a large work that comprises a repeated motif and was originally located on the Franklin and Queen Streets roundabout at the Queen Victoria Market. Young’s motif is a French curve, to which she was drawn for its sensuality and its past use as a mechanical drawing aid for the technical works executed by engineers and architects. The repetition of this motif along the curve of the roundabout creates a sense of movement, particularly for the motorist travelling alongside it. It is scaled to give the sensation of both moving in rhythm to and being engulfed by a wave. Unlike a solid monolithic sculpture, there is a ‘lightness’ about Island Wave, which is achieved by its thinness, its open form and the sense of movement it evokes. Island Wave engages both the motorist and pedestrian, and its location ensures that it has a local and international audience. In 2021 the sculpture was relocated to its new home at Newmarket Reserve in Kensington as part of the City of Melbourne’s QVM renewal program.