A new contemporary sculpture has been installed outside the main entrance at Forbes Hospital this week as one of the final stages of the hospital’s redevelopment. Siloscopes was created by internationally acclaimed Blue Mountains based artists Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen. They were chosen from a competitive submission process earlier this year and commissioned to create the artwork.
The two artists spent four days living and working with a Forbes farmer, learning about the tools, challenges and experiences of life on the land. Siloscopes is an interactive set of five pieces that resemble seed silos. The work reflects farm life and invites people to interact with each of the silos. “We wanted to create a work which enables visitors to reflect on these elements of farm life. The work invites people to interact with a humble seed silo in such a way as to transform it from an ordinary piece of equipment into a new kind of device,” the artists said.
The five pieces are called River, Stars, Bones, Sun and Rain. Each is a different size and shape and features a different design on the inside that people can view from standing below the silo and looking through a viewing area. The River silo features a gold leaf interior with a map of the Lachlan River. The Stars silo has a black interior with holes drilled into the roof of the chamber to match constellations and Bones represents bleached sheep rib bones lining the inside of the viewing chamber. In Sun the viewing chamber acts as a sun dial, and in the Rain silo the upturned lip of the roof collects water into a scoop. When the scoop fills with water it tips the internal tray, causing a bell to ring out.