Sculture has the gift of provoking debates. The medium’s ability to divide viewers over a work’s aesthetics – and often its cost to the public purse – can make sculpture a polarizing topic. But it is rare for a work to claim that it can save lives.
Working in the advertising field, Sydney creative Andrew Hankin is not above hyperbole. But his team’s participation in this year’s Sculpture by the Sea could very well save a life or lives, as visitors to Tamarama gaze in morbid horror/admiration/fascination at a gigantic sculpture that resembles a melanoma.
Creator of the massive We’re Fryin’ Out Here’ frying pan for 2014’s Sculpture by the Sea, Hankin is reprising his skin cancer awareness through art project with an inflatable sculpture constructed from durable fabric. Titled Melanoma, the work will almost imperceptibly change size, shape and color as the outdoor exhibition progresses.
It may be less light-hearted than his previous work, Hankin acknowledges, but a decade later he felt a “more cutting approach” was needed.
“It’s a really big question and I think in the sense of grandeur, we wanted to go out there and create something that hadn’t been done before in terms of scale,” he says.
“It will have a message that will be difficult to ignore this summer.”
How the three-meter-high by 20-meter-wide melanoma will change color, as well as its shape and size, will remain the artist’s secret.
“We almost want people not to recognize that the situation has changed at first,” he says.
“We want people to feel, ‘Wow, this changed before my eyes and I didn’t really notice’… because it’s almost like you recognize melanoma in your own skin.”
The creative team of Hankin, Andy Cooke and Matthew Aberline will be joined by Scott Maggs, who founded Skin Check Champions following the death of his closest friend from skin cancer aged 26.
According to Cancer Council NSW, two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer in their lifetime, and Australia is one of the world leaders in skin cancer research and treatment.
Early detection of melanomas is key, says Maggs.
“More than 60% of skin cancers are actually identified by people who have had them on their skin. It’s a really important thing for every Australian to learn, to be aware of changes and new things.”
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Skin Check Champions offers free early detection services, including to regional and remote communities, and educates people with the mantra “A, B, C, D, E” – A for asymmetry, B for edge, C for color, D for diameter and E for evolution.
On the weekend of October 26th and 27th, the organization will carry out free skin exams for people who come to see the melanoma sculpture in the Tamarama sand. When the exhibition ends on November 4, Skin Check Champions will hold a 10-day residency at the Bondi Surf Bathers life-saving club, where they hope to screen around 2,000 people.
The Sculpture by the Sea venture is the second artistic collaboration the non-profit organization is entering into, having partnered with Spencer Tunick for work on Bondi Beach in 2022, where 2,500 people stripped not only in the name of art, but also to draw attention to skin cancer.
The costs of creating the sculpture and holding the mass skin check events are being jointly funded by sunscreen manufacturer La Roche-Posay and pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb.
Now in its 26th edition, the world’s largest free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition will open on October 18. The 2km coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Tamarama is expected to see almost half a million visitors over the 18-day event.
This year will feature the work of a dozen Japanese sculptors, including Haruyuki Uchida, Keizo Ushio and Toshio Iezumi, artists from across Europe and Asia, and works by four Australian artists – James Rogers, John Petrie, Stephen King and Paul Bacon – who exhibited in the first Sculpture by the Sea in 1997.
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