Meet Manning Daly
Who are you and what do you create?
Kathy and I have worked in a collaborative partnership for a long time, sharing a common interest in creating art in public spaces that is thought provoking and meaningful. We have always shared a strong connection with landscape and the potential of art to communicate unique perspectives and draw attention to the importance of the natural environment. Our work seeks to understand the intersection between the natural and built landscape and why this matters to our future and ultimately our existence.
Developing art for public spaces takes us around Australia, working with Architects, Landscape Architects, Local Government and communities. Each project is unique, and understanding and realising the vision of everyone invested in the project leads to highly successful outcomes. Since the 1990’s our work has focused on extending the imaginative scope and significance of art in public spaces, connecting people and places, making art that is evocative and inspiring. We see art and culture as integral to a healthy and productive community.
What kind of inspirations go into your work?
Our approach to art is inspired by our accumulated experiences, interests and general curiosity, everything influences what we create. Every art project we produce expands our knowledge of the way people interrelate with the spaces they inhabit. Extensive experience in the public art field involves exploration of the way we intersect with and interact with natural and built landscapes, and the way art is fundamental to the creation of meaningful spaces. What drives our work is the exploration of the synergy between creative concepts and how we express them.
In what space do you like to create most?
Headspace is where it all happens, imagination is such a phenomenal power, it’s a place where ideas can change and unfold in an instant, where you can go off on a tangent and explore the unknown. Public or physical space however is an opportunity to express these ideas. The work for Horizon Arts Festival ‘Transience’ for example is about scale, expanding the microscopic and creating juxtaposition with the human form to articulate the essence of the concept. Expanding the unseen and overlooked and re-presenting our observations in new and engaging ways.
What has been your favourite or most important work to date?
Our art is our life and each work is an evolution of ideas that builds on previous work. Public commissions involve a lot of people, research and development, the importance of the work is really about how the art is valued by all those involved in the project and ultimately the viewer.
Glen and Kathy have created Transience as part of Homegrown, a short-film of their signature etchings on the sand of our spectacular Sunshine Coast Beaches, exploring our connection with the marine and coastal landscapes through the synergy of art and movement. Watch it online, Wed 26 Aug at 5pm.
