Tribute to Bondi victims

A single word appeared in the sky above Bondi Beach last Friday morning, written by a small plane and gone within minutes: Love.

The skywritten work by artist Stephanie Quirk opened Sculpture by the Sea’s 30th anniversary exhibition, and was created as the exhibition’s response to the world at this time and in particular to the terror attack at the beach on December 14, in which 15 people were murdered.

“This work makes the interior, immaterial world appear and takes it into public space,” Quirk said. “It’s an offering, a remembering that love is in our nature; love is the question and love is the answer. We are all under this sky together, this is our state of belonging.”

The word will be written again on each Saturday of the exhibition.

Also among the 100 works along the Bondi to Tamarama walk is Both Sides Now by Bondi-based artist and former journalist Paul Ewart, a single steel head bearing two mirrored faces looking in opposite directions, modelled on the Roman god Janus. Ewart has said the work represents the loss of the middle ground and increasing polarisation, with neither face able to see the other’s perspective.

Waverley mayor Steven Lewis, a member of the Jewish community, spoke at the opening of Sculptures by the Sea last Friday.

The exhibition runs until Monday, November 2, with more than 450,000 visitors expected.