When two white marble monuments were installed next to the Yarra in the 1990s, Crown casino operators were so concerned about getting an Asian audience to its venue that feng shui experts were called in to help place them. Having since become a feature on Southbank Promenade, the two 6.5-metre sculptures – named The Guardians and covered in ceramic images of fish, birds, vines, buildings and suns – are now to be removed and sent to a farm on the Mornington Peninsula.
The Guardians sculptures are to be removed from Southbank and sent to Sages Cottage Farm. Credit: Wayne Taylor Crown is removing the sculptures as part of a revamp of the promenade area in front of the casino, and will donate them to Sages Cottage Farm , an enterprise run by not-for-profit disability service Wallara. Sculptor Simon Rigg, who now lives in New York, said Melburnians needed to know the sculptures would be removed.
“I am sorry to see them go, they have been a prominent landmark in the city,” he said. “I think the two sculptures have added a lot of colour and energy to the city.” In 1996, Rigg received a $250,000 commission to create the sculptures to mark Crown’s opening and the original brief was for “two big white marble sculptures”.
“They gave me free rein to do anything, but it couldn’t be related to religion, politics or gender,” he said. “They were so wound up in getting a Chinese or Asian audience to the casino that they had a feng shui person come and face them the r.