Situated prominently on the Western Australian Maritime Museum’s balcony looking out to the Indian Ocean, the magnificent glass whale shark sculpture from Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2013 exhibition Transparent Sea has found its permanent home. 

WA Museum CEO Alec Coles today thanked Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation for donating the sculpture, and said through their generosity visitors to the Museum could appreciate this extraordinary artwork depicting the State’s marine animal emblem.

“Andrew and Nicola Forrest are great supporters of the WA Museum and Sculpture by the Sea, and we are thrilled to be able to incorporate Vaughn Bisschops’ beautiful work Transparent Sea into the Western Australian Maritime Museum,” Mr Coles said.

“The whale shark epitomises much about WA – its magnificent coast, biodiversity and burgeoning environmental tourism industry; it also epitomises the work of the WA Museum, particularly in the realms of biodiversity research and in understanding and interpreting the marine environment.”

The three metre sculpture was designed to play with light, where the constantly changing light flickers and plays with the glass to create a piece that never looks the same twice. Nicola Forrest, CEO and Director of the Minderoo Foundation, was closely involved determining where the work should be placed to allow the hues of both day and night to affect the mood and colour of the artwork.

“The beauty of the sculpture, the importance of the whale shark as a motif for marine conservation, and its inextricable link with WA as its marine wildlife emblem, is why we believe the WA Maritime Museum is the perfect home for Transparent Sea,” Mrs Forrest said.

“Minderoo Foundation is delighted that the WA Maritime Museum will showcase the spectacular beauty of Transparent Sea, so all West Australians will have the opportunity to take in its splendour.”

The sculpture’s creator, glass artist Vaughn Bisschops, has always had a close affiliation with the ocean. A family trip along the North West coastline in 2007 sparked his imagination when seeing the ocean savannah whilst snorkelling.

“I knew glass was the right product to get the effect I was after for my sculpture, but it took me a while to work out how to do it,” Mr Bisschops said.

“The colour and translucency of glass allowed me to create depth which was so important for the feel of the sculpture.”

“After I’d created Transparent Sea and took it to Exmouth to be exhibited I had an opportunity to actually swim with the whale sharks and, at the time, I was hoping the sculpture would stay in the area.”

“I had just been for this exhilarating, even spiritual, swim at a location not too far from Minderoo Station itself, and that same day I received a call to let me know the Forrests had bought the sculpture and were donating it to the WA Museum.

“I feel this sculpture has been on a journey up and down the West Australian coast and it has now found its proper home.”

Flora Perrella
Media & Communications Co-ordinator
Western Australian Museum
0424 027 646