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The Matildas may not have secured the bronze medal, but are now promised immortality in the very metal at their site of their World Cup heroics thanks to a grateful Queensland premier.<\/p>\n
But Annastacia Palaszczuk\u2019s joyful promise to the women\u2019s soccer team would be very expensive and probably unworkable in its current form, according to one expert sculptor.<\/p>\n
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The Matildas celebrating Cortnee Vine\u2019s matchwinning penalty against France.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Bronze, the traditional material for such works, would be prohibitively expensive to use. A single statue of an individual can run at more than $150,000, depending on scale and complexity \u2013 and the image proposed has nine players in it.<\/p>\n The iconic photograph shows the group of Matildas streaming across the field \u2013 arms out, elated \u2013 celebrating Cortnee Vine\u2019s matchwinning penalty against France that put Australia in its first World Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n Palaszczuk unveiled a plaque featuring the photo and promised a statue based on the image outside Brisbane\u2019s Lang Park, already home to representations of male sports stars including Wally Lewis, Mal Meninga and John Eales.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jennifer Mann, who has sculpted feminist activist Zelda D\u2019Aprano and jockey Hugh Cairns, said she did not think the photograph identified by Palaszczuk would be realistic as a series of individual statue \u2013 and that it would detract from their depiction as a team.<\/p>\n Jennifer Mann says there\u2019s an X-factor in what makes a sculpture resonate.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIf she wants to replicate that whole melee of people, as a sculpture … I\u2019m not quite sure how that photo would work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mann said one option would be a relief sculpture \u2013 a style in which the sculpted sections remain attached to a solid background of the same material \u2013 with a focus on Matildas skipper Sam Kerr.<\/p>\n \u201cI would tackle that scene of jubilation of the whole team as a relief sculpture, as a life-sized piece,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat would be really fantastic is Sam [Kerr] coming out of that as a relief sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than feature Kerr snap frozen in a single athletic moment, as is common in statues of sportspeople \u2013 think Shane Warne or Betty Cuthbert at the MCG or Steve Waugh at SCG \u2013 Mann would show her focusing intensely.<\/p>\n Matildas captain Sam Kerr and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with the photograph the statue is to be based on.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Bradley Kanaris<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see anything wrong with highlighting the captain as holding all the values [of the team]. I love that they were courageous but not aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Mann said such a piece would tell a big picture story, acknowledging the spirit of the team and reflecting its history-making impact.<\/p>\n \u201cA sculpture would remind generations to come that the success of the Matildas represented more than just sporting prowess,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a story of embracing and honouring the values they model like resilience, strength, courage, persistence, the joy of sport but also a compassionate approach to their opponents and expressing emotions. Things that we all loved seeing play out right in front of us as a nation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be good to have a statue of a woman alongside those of men already at the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n The Macedon Ranges-based artist makes sculptures and statues of real life people and wants to see values other than power \u2013 war, sporting prowess, politics \u2013 honoured.<\/p>\n \u201cOur society is not just about power, it\u2019s all sorts of wonderful things that people do, whose lives were devoted to things that we value.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, statues of people generally celebrate those in power, which is why there are more of animals than women; less than 2 per cent of public statues in Victoria are of real-life women.<\/p>\n Former prime minister Julia Gillard (right) with Kristine Ziwica and Professor Clare Wright from A Monument of One\u2019s Own, in front of Mann\u2019s statue of activist Zelda D\u2019Aprano at Trades Hall.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Chris Hopkins<\/cite><\/p>\n Mann sees a strong appetite for statues but to date sadly not for those of women.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really good now is there appears to be a huge groundswell of support for the idea of statue equality. Why shouldn\u2019t we be looking around our public spaces and seeing inspirational women as well as men?<\/p>\n \u201cOur public spaces should represent all of us as a society. When you scratch the surface and start to look at the histories of our amazing women, [Australian suffragette] Vida Goldstein is a shining star but there are so many.\u201d<\/p>\n Mann has studied the intricacies of facial reconstruction with the people who teach the FBI.<\/p>\n \u201cBuilding up from the skull, all of the musculature of the face, that\u2019s one side of it, you have to be anatomically and proportionally correct,\u201d she said, adding that those insights significantly impacted her work.<\/p>\n Mann said that the way we read faces was complex, even when they\u2019re bronze or marble statues. Once the anatomy is correct, Mann aims to capture the essence of a person.<\/p>\n \u201cA good likeness in sculptures of people\u2019s faces depends on an X-factor that comes from within the sculptor,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe, but a good likeness is something that everyone recognises.\u201d<\/p>\n Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees.<\/i><\/b> Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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