TitleThe Well of Wisdom
LocationCowra Sculpture Park
Year2006
MediaSculpture
Mediumcarved Japanese stone, Cowra granite
The Well of Wisdom is a collaborative project between Japanese sculptor Katsuhiro Gotō and local Cowra sculptor Ken Hutchinson. It was installed for the 2006 Australia - Japan Year of Exchange.
Gotō’s smooth circular figure and Hutchinson’s chiseled standing figures are generously placed in an open conversation with both each other and the viewer as one moves around the forms. The choice in material is notable, using Cowra granite and rare Japanese pink granite, along with the difference in methodologies of each artist. Hutchinson, intrigued by the way society works on the surface, has carved figures from single blocks of crystalline granite. Gotō uses a similar spatial and playful logic to his work A week (a fossil time), (displayed on the south end of the Cowra Sculpture Park), by splitting, pinning and then re-gluing a single stone before carving his figure.
On the bilingual title plaque, the kanji text is literally translated: wisdom’s spring/source. Are these opposing figures bearers of wisdom in regards to peaceful existence despite difference?