Coburg Lake-Man of the Valley-- October 2015 05
Man of the Valley
Antonio Masiniâs sculpture âMan of the Valleyâ is a gift from the Italian cities of Viggiano and Grumento. The sculpture is, in the words of Antonio Masini, âa tribute to the thousands of Lucanian migrants throughout the world and in Australia in particular. This monument represents the determination and courage inherent in the immigrant.â
The 2+ metre tall, one-tonne cast-bronze figure has been given a spectacular location by Coburg City Council in Coburg Lake Reserve. It stands on a square concrete plinth located on top of a small granite cliff that overlooks the valley where the Merri Creek flows and the parkâs main picnic area. The cliff is not a natural feature; prisoners from the now closed Pentridge Prison across the road it was quarried out to build their prison walls. The quarry has been replaced with a small lake and a park.
âMan of the Valleyâ is beside the Merri Creek bicycle path. The best way to see Coburgâs sculpture is on a bicycle as most are located near bicycle paths. The park had a friendly atmosphere when I visited in the morning on my bicycle. There were ducks and two black swans with four cygnets swimming in the creek. There was Middle Eastern music playing as a band set up in the parkâs band-shell. Families were setting up for picnics; the work âpicnicâ is Turkish and Coburgâs Turkish migrant population makes good use of the parks. A man says: âHello, my brotherâ to me as I pass, I prefer that to the nationalist political charged word â âmateâ.
The sculptor Antonio Masini was born in Italy in 1933. He is a painter and sculptor in the New Figurative style (not that term means much as a description except that the images are not abstract). Masini has exhibited around the world; in 1977 he exhibited at the International Originals Gallery in Melbourne. âMan of the Valleyâ is a companion to âMan in the Windâ (2001), a bronze sculpture dedicated to the Italian migrants in Canada, located in Montreal.
The man is just a man, it is not a portrait but he has a pleasant face. His body is not classical or elegant but the simplified form of a clothed modern man. His arms are raised allowing the sheet or cloak that he carries catches a fresh wind. It is a point between the symbolic and ordinary emotion of determined exaltation made monumental. âExaltationâ is to hold something up, represented in the figure holding up the sheet. The back of the sheet has some dynamic folds making the back of the sculpture as interesting as its front.
Coburg needs more sculpture to make the suburb feel more individual and to celebrate the variety of people from around the world who living here. And so I say, thank you to the cities of Viggiano and Grumento for the âMan of the Valleyâ.
By Mark Holsworth
Coburg Lake-Man of the Valley-- October 2015 05
Man of the Valley
Antonio Masiniâs sculpture âMan of the Valleyâ is a gift from the Italian cities of Viggiano and Grumento. The sculpture is, in the words of Antonio Masini, âa tribute to the thousands of Lucanian migrants throughout the world and in Australia in particular. This monument represents the determination and courage inherent in the immigrant.â
The 2+ metre tall, one-tonne cast-bronze figure has been given a spectacular location by Coburg City Council in Coburg Lake Reserve. It stands on a square concrete plinth located on top of a small granite cliff that overlooks the valley where the Merri Creek flows and the parkâs main picnic area. The cliff is not a natural feature; prisoners from the now closed Pentridge Prison across the road it was quarried out to build their prison walls. The quarry has been replaced with a small lake and a park.
âMan of the Valleyâ is beside the Merri Creek bicycle path. The best way to see Coburgâs sculpture is on a bicycle as most are located near bicycle paths. The park had a friendly atmosphere when I visited in the morning on my bicycle. There were ducks and two black swans with four cygnets swimming in the creek. There was Middle Eastern music playing as a band set up in the parkâs band-shell. Families were setting up for picnics; the work âpicnicâ is Turkish and Coburgâs Turkish migrant population makes good use of the parks. A man says: âHello, my brotherâ to me as I pass, I prefer that to the nationalist political charged word â âmateâ.
The sculptor Antonio Masini was born in Italy in 1933. He is a painter and sculptor in the New Figurative style (not that term means much as a description except that the images are not abstract). Masini has exhibited around the world; in 1977 he exhibited at the International Originals Gallery in Melbourne. âMan of the Valleyâ is a companion to âMan in the Windâ (2001), a bronze sculpture dedicated to the Italian migrants in Canada, located in Montreal.
The man is just a man, it is not a portrait but he has a pleasant face. His body is not classical or elegant but the simplified form of a clothed modern man. His arms are raised allowing the sheet or cloak that he carries catches a fresh wind. It is a point between the symbolic and ordinary emotion of determined exaltation made monumental. âExaltationâ is to hold something up, represented in the figure holding up the sheet. The back of the sheet has some dynamic folds making the back of the sculpture as interesting as its front.
Coburg needs more sculpture to make the suburb feel more individual and to celebrate the variety of people from around the world who living here. And so I say, thank you to the cities of Viggiano and Grumento for the âMan of the Valleyâ.
By Mark Holsworth