Manon Van Kouswijk

Peninsula pearls, 2021, by Manon Van Kouswijkis is the sixth in an ongoing series of major public art commissions installed on the Peninsula Link freeway, the Southern Way McClelland Commissions. The work presents a giant pearl chain and beaded necklace comprising over thirty large spheres suspended at differing heights between four to ten metres. White on the front and brightly coloured on the back, these balls provide multiple visual references such as buoys, beach balls, map pins, Ferris wheels, and the history of modernist design on the Mornington Peninsula. It provides an anamorphic illusion when driving past it on the freeway, forming a perfect circular chain at one point before appearing to dissipate into more dynamic configurations. The design was developed with Monash Art Projects (MAP).

The artist has said, ‘My recent work explores the shift that happens between a piece of jewellery being displayed in an exhibition or a domestic context and being worn on the body. As part of this shift, something can appear or disappear, as in my project of beaded necklaces that can be displayed in the shape of faces. When one of the necklaces is worn, its ‘face’ is no longer visible. A similar shift will happen in the perception of my sculpture: as one drives by, something becomes visible, just for a moment.’