Labour of love in Hoppers Crossing

Fredrick White

By Esther Lauaki

Light and life inspired the sculpture that takes pride of place in Fredrick White’s Hoppers Crossing front yard.
The experienced sculptor moved to the area two years ago and said the three metre tall art installation at his Bethany Road property has drawn the attention of many passers by.
“The bus route comes through here and people often wonder what this sculpture is all about,“ White told Star Weekly.
It took three months for him to create the 200 kilogram teardrop shaped sculpture called Eulogy – To speak in praise of light.
“I’ve been sculpting since the early 80s,” White said.
“My personal work comes from a deep place of wanting to understand the natural world and to each other.
“Eulogy is a meditation on mortality.
“The work is the shape of a water droplet … I really laboured over getting the shapes right.
“Water is symbolic of that idea of life and mortality.
“I am interested in the stuff that holds us together, the dominant paradigms of human life, our reliance on the earth and each other.
“There is no separation between anything … birth and death, above and below, past and future, all are part of the life cycle of living things.
“The life cycle is the main motif of my practice.”
White recently completed a large scale sculpture at the entrance of Berwick Football Club and another called Three Business Who Bought Their Own Lunch at Swanston Street in Melbourne.