Sculpture by the Sea by Nicholas Elias.

The art installation titled A Symbolic Inscription of the Imaginary by Australian architect Nicholas Elias brings modern art to the beach.

This colorful piece of art was his participation at the Sculpture by the Sea 2009 exhibition, which included around 100 sculptures installed along theTamarama to Bondi coastal walk. At the time, Nicholas Elias was an architecture graduate student and the project was part of his honors dissertation. The Sculpture was inspired by the phasing techniques of minimalist composer Steve Reich and was installed at Tamara Beach.The installation interacts with the surrounding environment forming an ever changing composition of brightly colored shadows.

Essentially the sculpture is a series of colored acrylic colored transparent sheets, vertically positioned 2m out of the sand. Installed in a public space, the sculpture was presented to the public in a unique and interactive way. It invited viewers to interact with it, touch it, take pictures and stand under its rainbow colored shadow.

According to Nicholas “”The Sculpture by the Sea Exhibition is a great example of the ways in which Honours work can make the transition from theory to tangible structures, and how research-based design can be at the forefront of architectural thinking in Australia,”