Simon Perry

Public Purse (right) is, for Australians at least, one of Perry's more recognisable works: located in the Bourke Street Mall, it functions as a unique, distinctive form of seating. The piece was commissioned by the council as part of their Percent For Art program in which one per cent of the council's budget was dedicated to funding public artworks with the goal of integrating art into the public spaces of the city. On the scheme Perry has said: "It's important to remember the 'per cent for art scheme' model represents a hard won victory and ensures there is a significant program of art in Australia."[3]

He also comments on the competition for attention public art faces with regards to advertising: "Art in the public domain, and I am particularly referring to the city, is always competing with a whole range of things for our attention."[4] Thus, the name Public Purse, is a reference to its commission from the Percent For Art Program, and is also a comment on the retail and department stores that populate the site.

Part of Perry's Threaded Field (1999–2000).

Threaded Field (left) is a large-scale integrated sculptural installation located on the Northwest stadium concourse at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne. Appearing in a series of thread-like segments, loops, knots and needles, the sculpture works to stitch together the various parts of the stadium exterior and concourse. Inspired by the architecture of the stadium, the sculpture is made of painted and polished steel; it weathers graffiti, and use as a children's climbing apparatus, it also offers unorthodox seating. Perry, commenting on the "shelf life" of his work, has said: "the materials and processes I use are robust because it allows a work to survive within what can be a very hostile environment and be experienced first-hand by as many people as possible. There is something particular about physically experiencing an art work that can never be communicated through reproduction."[5]

A scaled-up megaphone made of fibreglass, steel and sound equipment, Public Address functions in much the same way as a hand-held megaphone, except that rather than emitting the sounds of protest rallies it projects the sound of snoring.

Perry's "Public Address" (2005) at its original site in Federation Square, Melbourne.

Public Address, Perry has said, functions as a reprise to his Public Purse (1994)[6] insofar as megaphones are associated with political demonstration, authoritarian instruction and public oration; symbolically they represent a public object and, moreover, language and communication. The irregular breathing emanating from Public Address subverts these traditional notions of the megaphone and represents the voice of a public stupor preventing the vocalisation of objections to a world in crisis. The sound of snoring is indicative of the privacy of unconsciousness, but within the urban context, lying discarded in Federation Square, the giant megaphone appears both comical and pathetic informing to the malaise symptomatic of cultural and political fatigue. Indeed, during a large political rally at Federation Square about workplace agreements, Perry's megaphone had to be turned off so the snoring didn't disrupt the rally. Ironically, John Howard responded to the demands for workplace agreements by stating that he would not be influenced by megaphone politics.[7]

Perry has observed that "[t]here are advantages and disadvantages to having a voice...if you have a voice you have a responsibility and a risk."[8] In this way, Public Address, while dealing with notions of a public voice, also comments on the contested nature of public spaces. When Perry, an artist famous for his large-scale public art, elects to deal with anxieties about individuals expressing themselves as part of a collective in a public space he deliberately implicates himself in that confused nexus of being unable to express something terribly important. This self-consciousness and playfulness informs to a dynamic that is consistent with the vein of irony and scepticism that runs through much of his work.