Do Go On - Do Go On Presents: Arty Facts - Vault

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

There are many abstract pieces of steel public art but there are few that have physically gone on a sightseeing tour of their own city. Ron Robertson-Swann's 'Vault' has been part of Melbourne since 1980 and continues to cause conversation. Jess Perkins tells Vault's story in this episode of Arty Facts.Watch the video of this podcast: https://youtu.be/8b0JL91VUY0 'Do Go On Presents: Arty Facts' is a joint production from Stupid Old Studios and the Do Go On podcast.Do Go On are Dave Warneke, Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.Stupid Old Studios is an independent production house based in Melbourne Australia who specialise in making fine, handcrafted nonsense.Twitter: http://twitter.com/stupidoldInstagram: http://instagram.com/stupidoldFacebook: http://facebook.com/stupidoldstudiosThis production was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at http://cbf.org.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just jumping in really quickly at the start of today's episode to tell you about some upcoming opportunities to see us live in the flesh. And you can see us live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2024. We are doing three live podcasts on Sundays at 3.30 at Basement Comedy Club, April 7, 14 and 21. You can get tickets at dogo1pod.com. Matt, you're also doing some shows around the country. That's right. I'm doing shows with Saren Jayaimana, who's been on the show before. We're going to be in Perth in January, Adelaide in February,

Melbourne through the festival in April, and then Brisbane after that. I'm also doing Who Knew It's in Perth and Adelaide. Details for all that stuff at mattstuartcomedy.com.

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See app for details. You're listening to Artifacts, a show that dives into the fascinating history of famous artworks and painters. Broadcast on C31, Stupid Old Studios YouTube channel and the Community Radio Network. When you think about controversial art pieces, you probably think about nudity or political statements or a bull and a little girl. You probably don't think about bright yellow geometric sculptures but that is exactly what became Melbourne's most controversial art piece. This is Vault.

Hi, welcome to Artifacts. My name is Jess Perkins and I'm here with Dave Warnecke and Matt Stewart as we sit inside a big, beautiful, yellow piece of art called Vault. Oh, I was wondering why you invited us here. Yeah. I've heard of outsider art. It feels like we're insider art now. It's like we're sitting under a colourful overpass. Yeah, okay.

Oh, that's beautiful. I imagine the artists would love that kind of feedback. It's like a very nice bus shelter. Yeah. No, no, no. It's got a very interesting history, this particular piece of art. And I'd love to tell you a little bit about it, if you'll indulge me. I'd love to hear about it.

Well, first of all, let's talk, let's describe what it is that we're sitting underneath. Obviously, very large scale sculpture. It's about five-ish meters tall, made from welded steel, painted this beautiful, bright, warm yellow, which you see around Melbourne quite a bit now. And that is not a coincidence. It's kind of because of this particular piece of art, which I'll talk a little bit about coincidence. It's because of this particular piece of

art which I'll talk a little bit about later. It's called Vault Yellow. Yeah. It's geometric abstraction if you had to categorize it I'm guessing that's probably what you would have said. I hope the surgery went well. Abstraction. So yeah a type of art that uses geometric shape and form to generate abstract compositions. So essentially it's not trying to be anything or look like anything, it's just its own, you know, it's its own thing. You do you. Exactly, thank you, yes, it's you do you art. Yeah. I think it's the best way to talk about it. So it currently sits here outside the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, or ACCA, in South Bank, but it hasn't always lived here.

In fact, it has been the subject of a lot of criticism and controversy over the last 40-ish years. So a little bit of backstory. So Vault is a piece by award-winning sculptor Ron Robertson Swan. He was born in Sydney in 1941. Ron Swan? That's why you took the Robertson. Ron Robertson Swan. He was born in Sydney in 1941. Ron Swan? That's why you took the Robertson. Ron Robertson Swan.

You've got to get a bit of distance between the Ron and the Swan. And it's double N, Swan, so it's very different to Rom. Yeah. You know? It's completely different. His name's Ron Swan. Ron Swan. Ron Robertson Swan.

Ron Rob Swan. Ron Swan. Ron Rob Swan. Ron Rob Swan. We'll get bogged down in that. He was born in 1941 in Sydney, and he studied under Lyndon Dadswell at the National Art School before moving to the UK in the early 60s

to study under Anthony Caro and Philip King at St Martin's School of Art, a very prestigious art school. This is a very cool description of him. He's been described by Australian sculpture historian and critic, very specific art critic. Just sculptures for me. I imagine there's dozens of these. Yeah.

It's just... Same as Graham Sturgeon, but how is this description that Graham said of Ron Robswan? It says, The most consistent of the classic formalists, that is the one most concerned to produce a sculpture which, while obviously of its era, transcends consideration of style in search of a timeless sense of rightness.

Oh, yeah. Now, I understood like every third word, but it sounds good. I know. A timeless sense of rightness. Yeah. You know, it's like, yes, it's of its era, but it's also timeless. Love that. That's how you want to be described as a person and an artist, I think.

Yes. I think of you in those sort of terms. Do you? Is it because... You're of your era. Is it because I just said it's a really great way to be described and you're being kind? No. You think I'm of my era? That's something that's been ringing around in my head for a bit now.

But if I'm of my era, am I also timeless? Yeah. Wow. But finally Sturgeon's put it into words. Yeah. Wow. But finally Sturgeon put it into words. And to learn a little bit more about Vault, I'm here with Dr. Amy Spears at RMIT School of Art.

Can you tell me a bit about whether or not the controversy of Vault had an impact on Ron Robertson-Swan's career moving forward? He said he felt a bit hurt about the public response and was kind of a bit shocked by it. He was hoping that the sculpture would be sort of embraced by the public and I think he specifically designed it for people to be able to walk through it and sort of, you know, it was supposed to accommodate people and, you know, be enjoyed by people

and so he was surprised by the reaction. He's been interviewed more recently and he said ultimately it didn't actually hurt his career and it made him famous, the controversy. He's like even taxi drivers know me. Now this wasn't a sculpture that Ron just whipped up in the studio or the backyard on a whim. It had a very very clear purpose for its design. So back in 1976 an architectural competition was launched by Melbourne City Council to design a permanent Melbourne City Square, which we kind of know of on Swanston Street

between Melbourne Town Hall and St Paul's Cathedral, where the Birkenwills statue was. It's no longer, but it was for a very long time. And the competition was won by Denton Corker Marshall Architects. Wow. Corker. I'd describe this as a bloody corker. It's an absolute corker. I'd call it a Denton Corker Marshall Architects. Wow. Corker. I'd describe this as a buddy, Corker. He's an absolute corker.

I'd call it a Denton. I'd call it a Marshall. So DCM were the architects. And if DCM rings a bell at all, it might be because... Oh, yeah, the snacks from your lunchbox? The rice bubble treats, love them. They were good, weren't they? And LCM's, and it didn't stand for anything, did it?

That's right. So have we discussed that so many times? Whereas DCM stands for those three words you said before. Denton. One of them being Corker. Marshall, correct. So yeah, if DCM rings a bell at all to anybody, it might be because they've also been behind buildings and structures

like the Melbourne Museum, the Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Gateway, big yellow chip. Oh, yeah. This feels like the cousin of the chip. Absolutely, Melbourne Gateway, big yellow chip. Oh yeah. Along near the freeway. This feels like the cousin of the chip. Absolutely it does, yeah. They also did like the war memorial in Canberra, a bunch of other really noteworthy and... Holy shit.

Yeah, a lot of big buildings, not just in size, but I mean like significance. Yeah. So the brief for the Melbourne City Square was very complex and DCM's... Hey, it's meant to be brief, mate. You're not really fitting the brief here making it complex. It would have been a bit of fun. I'd be fun to have around the office. Yeah I think you'd be a great architect. If any architectures are watching. And you need someone to just brighten up the office a little bit. Or architects. Yeah. But either.

I could yeah have me around great for banter. Yeah yeah just either. I could, yeah, have me around. Great for banter. Yeah, yeah. Just a few sort of architect puns. Yeah, you could employ me to stand by the water cooler. Yeah. And just have a few zips, a few zaps. Yeah, yeah. I reckon that'd be a pretty dehydrated office.

Yeah. Avoiding that section. He's into it. Oh, no. Don't even bother. Bring your own water, to be honest. Simply not worth it. So in Melbourne City Square, the brief was very complex.

And DCM's design included a giant video screen, restaurants, shops, outdoor cafes, a glazed canopy, a sunken amphitheater. OK, sounds like they just let a five-year-old describe what they want. A ball pit. A graffiti wall. Yeah, a like they just let a five-year-old describe what they want. A ball pit. A graffiti wall. Yeah, a big slide.

A reflecting pool. Ronald McDonald high-fiving me. Motorbike. My dog. My dog. I'll piggyback on my dad. Okay, all right. All right.

Well, we can do the first thing. You can have the carousel. You can have the big screen. How about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I'll take it. I'm not even done.

It hadn't worked. There was a water wall as well. And then a big open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright. I'll take it. I'll take that. I'm not even done. It had more. There was a water wall as well and then a big open area of the square too. It had enough space for all of that and just a big open area. So it was quite an ambitious project and Melbourne City Council wanted a statement art piece made specifically for Melbourne City Square. So DCM, who as we know were designing City Square,

they, which was sort of a competition to win that bid, they put on their own competition. Ah, subcomp. Yeah, to find an art piece that would complement the square's design. Now if you know Melbourne or you visit Melbourne, you'll notice that the city has a lot of bluestone buildings, you know. It's got a general kind of blue-grey vibe to it and Ron Robertson-Swan wanted to create a piece to offset some of the greyness and the straight lines that exist in the city

and he won the bid to create the piece for the city square. Right, so they needed something fun in the square other than the video screen, the water wall, the glass carousel. The wall pit. They needed something that would really make it stand out. Yeah. You know? There's going to be a gray video wall. Yeah. Only black and white.

Yeah. Sorry, we can't do color. So his design met the challenge of being a grand interlocked sculpture. I guess that's specifically what they were looking for. And as you can see, it's pretty grand. And it's quite interlocked. Yeah.

Hence, we are not getting rained on right now. We're getting a lot of shelter. I, for one, love interlocked sculptures. I can't help but think, though, Jess, that we are not in the Melbourne City Square. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to come up pretty soon.

Okay. Video screen. Yeah, I know. I want to watch the 80s videos. It also met the requirement of being bold, visually simple, and a strong focal point, which would offset the formal character of the square. So when they're saying, like, we need something complementary, really they need something completely different,

but in a complementary kind of way. I love these art terms you're using. Yeah. I know art. I know art. I know art. But while the then unnamed piece, didn't have a name for a while, did meet these objectives, it was a little too abstract for public taste. Before it was even built, it began to attract criticism

from some media and council factions on the grounds that its modern form was thought to not complement the location, which is pretty ironic given it was chosen because it complimented the location. I'd love to know if Melbourne's ever liked anything at first, like any building or piece of art. I would love to know if there's ever been something that we've actually... That we've backed.

That we've backed. That we've gone... That's it. A bit of funding into that? Great. Yeah, sounds like a great idea. Yeah, money well spent. Love that.

Can't wait to see it. I think the public just found it very radical at the time and the public were unused to sort of abstraction and that sort of modernist sculpture. Although that sort of sculpture was quite representative of the kind of trendy public art at the time. I don't know whether public art should appeal to the public. I think it's really context specific. I think it's nice that sometimes artworks challenge people and this work certainly did. It also had a cost of about $70,000,

which was seen to be pretty exorbitant, a bit excessive. Oh, that sounds cheap to me. 70 grand. 70 grand. That's pretty good. I could knock this up for 70 grand. You could or you couldn't? Couldn't. Right, how much? Back then me. 70 grand? 70 grand. That's pretty good. I could knock this up for 70 grand. You could or you couldn't? Couldn't.

Right, how much? Back then maybe. How much? Oh this, I wouldn't do this for less than 10 mil. 10 mil you reckon? I wouldn't know where to fricken start. Firstly I'd have to go to art school. Mine would be made of cardboard if it was up to me.

Oh that's... That's quite a lot of cardboard. Would it still be this thick? Yeah, yeah, yeah, really thick cardboard. Yeah, okay. A bit of papier-mâché. Hey, now, I learnt this the hard way, but that does not work outdoors. It doesn't.

Once I punched a hole in a wall at home, an outside wall, while my family was away, and I papier-mâché-ed the wall back up, and, yeah, that did not last. I have follow-up questions. Why did you punch a wall? It was a joke. Okay. A bit of faux anger. Sure. And I took it too far. Okay. Now who's laughing? Yeah. No one. No one's laughing. But anyway the point is the paper mached does not do the job outdoors. So you're going to have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe you can come to uni with me.

Okay, let's do it. Maybe, yeah, we can just go to Steele University. I feel like you don't actually, you don't need to because it's actually already been built. Yeah, we could just buy it. Yeah, yeah. So if we get the 10 mil, I'll just go, here's 70 grand for you, Ron Swan.

Yep, thanks so much. Good job. Good job. Good job. We'll take it from here. But 70 grand, what, four decades ago? Yeah, this was in the late 70s when it was first sold. That's got to be a lot more now. It's a lot of money.

And I think maybe the Melbourne City Council felt a bit of hesitation or concern once the public and media started to seem unsupportive of it. They were sort of like, no, maybe we shouldn't go ahead with this. Oh, they started distancing themselves. That's when they started saying, oh, we wanted something complimentary, not different. Yeah, but like different, but not that different. But Patrick McHackey, an incredible name,

one of the most eminent and admired art historians in Australia with an incredibly long and impressive resume, he gave his full support to the work. He applauded it for design excellence. He loved it so much he macaqued his dachshund. That's it. Does it work? Great sir. It's DCM backwards. Macaque dachshund.

That's actually what it stands for? That's what it stands for. We're trying to talk about art. I know. We're experts here, okay? We know things and we're respectful people. But I imagine that when Makaki puts his dacky behind a project, the whole public goes, well, if he likes it.

Exactly right. Makaki is like the same age as Ron Robertson-Swan. And, you know, they were both established already in the art world. They're in their late 30s by this time. But, yeah, Makaki already had a reputation for being very good and knowing what he's talking about. So the Melbourne City Council were like, okay, yeah, if he thinks it's all right.

Surely with art and stuff, you've got to trust the experts to some degree. Right. Yeah, you would think so. Because, I because i mean like if you didn't tell me i wouldn't know whether this was good or not no i have no idea what do you think about it i think oh look i think it's it's stupid and i think that's awesome i think it's fantastic yeah but you know i couldn't i couldn't write an essay about the geometricicity of it or anything like that. So, yeah, they trusted Makaki's opinion and they went ahead with, you know, letting Ron Robertson-Swann make this piece of art.

Max Delaney, who's the artistic director and CEO of ACCA, wrote a really great piece about Vault a couple of years ago and he touches a lot on the impact of Vault and also you know what Melbourne was like then. He says initially there was great fanfare but it very quickly developed into a much publicised controversy attracting huge public and media debate. It became a staple on the front page of Melbourne's newspapers for six months or so. People just angry about a piece of art that has not uh been unveiled yet it's so funny

it's a it's pretty wild well i mean it must have been a slow news year yeah six months six months of this on the front page what's going on what was happening oh we're a pretty cultured city yeah these days it's still art on the front page every day yeah yeah yeah yeah there's the art section it's the largest section oh it's the largest section. Oh, it's huge, exactly. Breakfast Radio, Duos, you know, Pig Dog and the Runt Man. I'll still take callback on it. What do you reckon? What do you reckon about Volt?

To be honest, I like the geometricity of it. Well said, Pig Dog. Which one of you is Pig Dog? I guess me. Who am I? Runt boy. Runt boy. That adds up.

Yeah, it checks out. Can I have a name? Yeah, you can do the news. You're a journalist. It's true. I'm a journalist. What do you want? I'll give you a name.

Come on then. Pig boy. Cheryl on the news desk. Scarf. Scarf. Scarf woman. Guess what she wore to work on her first day on the job. We like to have a bit of fun around this office. Head hair.

Head hair. Head hair. I'm going to move on. Thanks, Cheryl. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series FX is Shogun only on Disney plus. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that.

An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX is Shogun. A new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water.

We can acknowledge indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. It didn't really help that, like I mentioned before, the sculpture was unnamed for about two years, which lent itself to people giving it nicknames.

Oh, okay. I mean, Robertson Swan himself, he referred to it as the thing. The steel workers who were hired to actually construct it and weld it all together, they called it Steelhenge. Oh, that's funny. It's a bit of fun. That's pretty good. And most famously, some newspapers called it Yellow Peril, a name many still know it

by now. But the Yellow Peril is a racist term. Originally it applied to Chinese and other Asian immigration to Europe and Australia in the late 19th century. So it's a confusing correlation. But Max Delaney writes, the nickname Yellow Peril demonstrates a conflation of xenophobia and anti-modernist sentiment, which were both pronounced at the time. In the art world too, it was criticised in some quarters as being cool, dominant and impersonal

without regard for the community, a charge often levelled at modernist sculpture. So it seems like the art community were like, modernist, no. That's funny that they use cool in a derogatory way it's pretty cool oh thanks bad way oh you don't want your art to be cool you want your art to be uncool lukewarm okay that's the dream yeah I reckon I'd call it Doritos. Oh, okay. Or, yeah, nachos. Nachos, yeah. Let me check the nachos. Okay.

Yeah, like chips and dip, in brackets, sans dip. Yeah. Something like that. Oh, yeah. So it's just chips. Corn chips. Yeah. C.C.'s.

C.C.'s. Is that what it stands for? So Queen Elizabeth II opened Melbourne City Square in May of 1980. That's pretty cool. And like all new things, the square attracted a lot of criticism. This is just Melbourne City Square. People hated it still. It seemed bare.

The video screen was too noisy. They didn't like the starkness. It had like a glazed steel canopy over it. They're like, I don't like it. They just hated it. And of course, it wasn't just the city square that people were upset by. Vault, as it was finally named by now, was met with mixed feelings, but mostly negative. Even the Queen was brought into the issue. She was not enthused. She was asked

by reporters. I'm not pleased by the Vault. I'll tell you what she said and you can do your spot on Queen impression. When asked by reporters, she was reported to have said that perhaps it could have been painted a more agreeable colour. Perhaps it could have been painted a more agreeable colour. Maybe move. Well, the Queen Elizabeth II, obviously famous for her dull colours. Yeah.

Never wears a bright outfit. Never! Hates bright colours. I reckon she's definitely worn vault yellow before. I wouldn't put it past her wearing vault yellow. So Max Delaney again writes, there were various demonstrations for and against vault, including a public rally in August

of 1980 to save our sculpture. So a lot of people got behind it. I think the fact that the media, like newspapers in particular, were really shitting on it kind of made some people rally around it a little bit. Yeah, that's totally my instinct. It very much became a political issue as well. It was the fall guy for opposing factions of the Melbourne City Council. Some part of the Melbourne City Council were really for it, others very much against it.

Max also says, a much larger sculpture than we'd ever experienced. It was designed so members of the community could walk through, with and around it. It was always supposed to be a commanding of space and a marker of place, but it never quite landed properly. I don't know if Ron Robertson-Swan imagined that we would be sitting inside it. Yeah, recording inside it. Yeah.

How many times have people like sheltered under the Statue of David? Or the Mona Lisa? It's got a pretty good bulge that probably yeah that's a one person bulge this is a multi-person bulge yeah you could go you could have a party under here it'd be fine yeah and i mean it being that bright color as well like you said it's supposed to be a marker of place so it was an easy place to yeah you know a good landmark like the big yellow structure i'll meet you there or or you'd you'd see it and know where you were so it makes sense after a big night out in the city oh hey well i mean you'd probably vomit from seeing the color yeah a little bit off putting it whatever so unfortunately those who opposed the sculpture

eventually won the battle and less than a year after it was unveiled it was dismantled and moved to a much quieter and emptier part of the city to batman park on the yarra it's kind of abandoned i hate it don't let these losers win they suck they're just going to be like yeah who's spending time to campaign against this sculpture yeah oh look at the worst and a lot of, like, some of the people that are opposing it so strongly are working for the Melbourne City Council. It's like, do you not have other things you could be working on? And surely, and moving it, that's going to cost even more money. Yeah, it seems like a bit of effort, but they just, yeah, they were against it.

But don't worry, don't worry. Everything turns out. I really hope it survives. We're on tenterhooks here. It was pretty frustrating, the move, for Ron Roberts and Swan, because Vault was intended to be responsive to its location, largely through colour. So moving the sculpture to a new, different location

significantly distorted the artist's original intention. It's like, well, I've made it specifically for that city square and now it's just in a park that nobody really spends any time in. It doesn't get a lot of foot traffic, it's just kind of shoved away. Yeah because like it's an installation and it was designed to be installed somewhere. Exactly right yeah. So it stayed in Batman Park until 2002 when it was moved to its current position where we are now as ACCA opened its new building here in Southbank. There's a man named Jeffrey Wallace who's written a book called Peril in the Square and he writes and

when late in 2002... Look I've just read bits but I love this guy. Yeah, it feels like you've got a real sense of the character. Late in 2002 Vault was moved again to its new home in Southbank after two decades as a homeless shelter, favoured Target for graffitists and even a training aid for visiting footballers who appreciated the unpredictable bounce. Lord Mayor John Soe welcomed it as an old and respected friend.

A lot of people have made arguments about Vault that it took 20 years for the the public to catch up onto that style and I do wonder if these days it would have attracted the same kind of controversy. If anything it would have been controversial because it was like a white man making modernist sculpture and not something more radical so I mean it's hard to say why the public were really surprised by it but it sounds like they just weren't used to big yellow sculptures. This happens a bit where enough time goes by

that people start appreciating things. Yeah. So Max Delaney, I mean, maybe a little biased because he is the director of ACCA, but he says this is the ideal location for this now. He says it sits happily alongside the Victorian College of the Arts and dance company Chunky Move, amazing name for a dance company, as well as Woodmarsh's iconic architecture, which references the sculptural traditions

that Roberts and Swan was promoting with Vault. It belongs to the City of Melbourne, which looks after its care and maintenance. It's become a popular backdrop for wedding photography because of its gold or yellow colour, which represents good luck and prosperity in many different cultures which is kind of cool and in a nice sort of I don't know it feels like a little bit of justice after all that fuss in the late 90s over half of the Melbourne City Square was sold for the development of the Western Hotel and in the period between 97 and 2000 the remaining area of the square was totally redeveloped

with a much simpler plan and granite gravel was introduced. It was just sort of, it was nothing. Like, do you remember? It was like a Brunetti's and... Yeah, like a little stream of a water feature and that was it. Is there a chance it goes back to where it was meant to be? I mean, if we knock down a whole bunch of buildings. Yeah, I'm listening.

Maybe. And now there's like the big metro tunnel. Well, that's it, yeah. And so it was this big substantial reduction of its area. And then nearby, just up the road, Federation Square opened in 2002. So now the civic importance of Sydney Square wasn't really, it was really diminished. It was like, well, why, we've got Fed Square.

Yeah. Why would a city of 4 million people need a second square? We don't need that many outdoor spaces. Yeah. Okay. All right. What we need, we're selling it off. Yeah, we need big hotels.

Yeah. We need big hotels. And yeah, now, like you say, it was closed in 2017 after it was announced that City Square would be acquired and demolished to allow for construction of a new railway station. But apparently, when it's finished, they're kind of going to rebuild it to how it was, but I'm talking like 1997, just the small square.

Oh, OK, but this could go back. I reckon this should go back. Oh, it looks sick there. That is like a real brown-grey area. Yeah. It would pop. Do you reckon? Yeah, I think so so

perhaps it's a good thing that vault was moved and found a more permanent home in south bank it's at least it's been here for quite some time now um eric rowlinson who was then the director of ngv noted in relation to the debate around vault similar to what you were saying matt but he said it inevitably takes 20 years for public acceptance to catch up with the vision of artists so now people are like oh yeah vault's great what are you talking about i never hated it i was always pro vault i love it my favorite piece of art i know where it is i always got it yeah i always got it love the yellow it pops love it i used to visit batman park all the time oh yeah and there was another another great piece written by Charles and Kate Nodrum,

and they write, Time and familiarity seemed to soothe the ruffled feathers of many who had initially disliked the work. This has continued, and today, 40 years down the track, Vault has emerged not just as one of Melbourne's icons, but arguably as the best-known public sculpture in Australia. Wow. So there you go.

Even more than Michelangelo's David. That's one of ours, isn't it? Yeah, the copy they've got on the Gold Coast, you mean. Yeah. And, yeah, that's the story of Ron Robertson Swan's vault. I love Ronnie Swanee. It really rolls off the tongue. Yeah, he's the best and I'm a fan, I think. Yeah, I like it. I think Ronnie Swanee. It really rolls off the tongue. Yeah, he's the best.

And I'm a fan, I think. Yeah, I like it. I think you're right. I think it would be great to see it back in, like, a more central populated area. But, you know, at least it's respected here. My favourite thing about Ronnie Swanee is he didn't even build it. I love... I want to be the kind of artist who goes, yeah, it's sort of yellow.

You're an ideas man. We've got angles. And they go, you can put something together. If that's art, then I want in. How do we get somebody else to do this? Oh, do you think of this as art? Yeah, this isn't art. Sorry to disappoint you.

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Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future.