The City of Perth is under increasing pressure to drop its plans to replace one of the city’s most beloved public artworks with a 7-metre tall effigy of an astronaut, which as been derided as a piece of “factory-produced space junk”.
Until four years ago, Ore Obelisk, affectionately known as The Kebab by the people of Perth, stood in the heritage-listed Stirling Gardens in the heart of the city. The 15-metre work made from local geological minerals, created by the architect, artist and Perth’s first city planner, Paul Ritter, was erected in 1971 to celebrate Western Australia’s population reaching one million, and was one of the city’s first public artworks.
But in 2021, the sculpture was cut into pieces and placed in storage, after council deemed it had become unsafe.
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The Kebab’s original plinth still stands, awaiting the sculpture’s restoration and return. No report ever eventuated examining the three options presented to council in 2022 – conservation, relocation or decommissioning.
Then last year, Perth’s then mayor, Basil Zempilas – now leader of the Western Australian Liberal party – announced a new work would take The Kebab’s place.
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