Bright Prospect

"To really ‘see' a McKay sculpture one should see into it. One should see how each discrete element works off the next and how the elements relate to the whole. The eye travels through the sculpture making connections with light and shade." 'Bright Prospect" by Ian Mckay, an Australian sculptor, outside the Tasmania Museum. Painted steel, 1979. This is what he had to say about the piece in one interview:The only sculpture that I’ve actually sprayed colour on, which I think is one of my very best sculptures by the way, is the one I’ve got in Hobart in front of the Tasmanian Museum of Art. It’s a bright red colour, vermilion red. I call it Bright Prospect. There is where I’ve been able to use colour, but use it symbolically, not as a mood. It’s a bright colour; it looks like it’s attracting insects. It’s a vibrant sculpture, a very straightforward beautiful one. What is the colour a symbol of?Brightness. I remember Graeme Sturgeon saying to me at the time when I showed it at the Art Gallery of NSW, god you’ve got awful judgement, but I think I’ve been proven right.But with many of my sculptures I can’t see an opportunity to put colour on, so I don’t, and I don’t give a damn if they last ten years or a hundred years because that’s the way it is.