Younge wins Cape Town Convention Centre commission
After eight months, two rounds of open art proposal submissions and one by a shortlist of invited artists, the commission for the two spaces allocated to suspended sculptural installations in Cape Town's under-construction International Convention Centre has been awarded to Gavin Younge. Younge, a professor at the Michaelis School of Art, won with a proposal for two linked pieces entitled Reservoir.
In the most prominent space, surrounded by three walls of glass, and clearly visible from the Heerengracht and the foreshore highway, an enormous amphora shape of woven steel basketwork will be suspended on one side. Viewers inside the centre who move to the mezzanine viewing deck for a closer look will cross an infra-red signal which will trigger an LCD screen set onto the rails of the deck to light up and start spelling out one of a reservoir of many stories of Capetonians. In the second space, linked to the first by a long gallery, Younge has proposed a ship-like form of wood, with a second store of stories.
The work must be completed for the opening of the Centre in July of this year. The unsuccessful artists invited to submit proposals were Andries Botha, Sandile Zulu, Alan Alborough, the Handspring Puppets, Berni Searle and Sue Williamson.
