Curtin Campus Sculpture Garden

Louise Kaestner
Dec 26, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Dec 27, 2024

Curtin Campus Sculpture Garden.

Source: The Gnawnster YouTube (2024).

Interview with the Curtin Campus Sculpture Garden

Birds chirped, the sound chasing clouds across the sky. My feet pounded the pavement as my breath huffed. I had walked all of 200 metres to my first non-human interview away from Twin Dolphin Hall. After perusing my paper map and wandering down a few false paths with barricades, I found myself in the Curtin Campus Sculpture Garden. Did I expect something resplendant, such as shiny sculptures stroking the sky from the ground? Or perhaps, I expected sinister, dark, hulking industrial monsters? It turns out my expectations were not met. What I found instead was 4 rusty statues and a couple of rocks arrayed accross grass and surrounded by shrubs and trees. It was as underwhelming in size as it was in nature. What nature there was underwhelmed me. As I stared at the sculptures, I struggled to find meaning or metaphor in them.

As the sculptures spoke to me and I listened, I realised they had much they same gripes with staff and students as the Twin Dolphin Unilodge Community Garden. The water bearing structures complained that they felt the use of water is improper. Many people mentioned that the sounds of water felt peaceful and the shade of the trees encouraged calmness. However, the sculptures were adamant that had the land been consulted, the structures could have been integrated with edibles. The round sculpture informed me that they would have appreciated strawberries to be planted around them rather than having a foreboding moat circling them. The grass validated this. Both sculpture and greenery said that it was important for designers to think with a mind to usefulness rather than pretty trinkets.

The Curtin Campus Sculpture Garden Nuerodivergent and Gender Fluid Statue

As I walked through the garden and received the same stories from each, I stumbled across the nuerodivergent, male CIS gender, she/her statue. This statue mentioned, though she had seen many humans like her, none had ever once considered who she was. She had a story she wanted to tell, but none of the people using the garden had ever stopped to listen or communicate back. Though staff and students would speak on how forward thinking they were, the statue complained that they hadn't though forward enough to meet her needs as a statue.

The statue felt that the current greenery did not do justice to her gender fluidity or neurodivergence. Furthermore, the statue felt that though the materials used to create her were not sustainable, this could have been ofset by large leafy vegetables, of which she had always wanted to see. Being a sculpture made it difficult for her to move around. Finally, she mentioned that a sensory garden surrounding her, full of fragrant and colourful flowers, along with flowers to attract pollinators, would have been just the thing to ground her when she felt overwhelmed and nervous from the often busy area.

I pondered all the garden revealed to me in the short time I spoke with it. There were many interviews I was conducting this day with non-humans. I thanked the garden for its time. The garden thanked me back for communicating with it rather than using it.