Wendy Whiteley drives up to us behind the wheel of her beautiful, highly-polished vintage Jaguar, steps out with her hair wrapped in a woven scarf, an enormous black-beaded beetle on her white shirt and a long, lightweight black trenchcoat flapping behind her, snaps open her cigarette case to light up then wanders up to greet us - all the while leaving the Jag unlocked.
But this is Sydney. Wendy's Sydney. And locking the Jag is a triviality. Wendy is here for the very serious business of giving the people of Newcastle a gift worth nearly one million dollars.
A small band of Novocastrians has been here since not long after the sun came up to witness the removal of Brett Whiteley's 'Black Totem II' in preparation for a two-hour journey north to its new home in the collection of Newcastle Art Gallery.
Tristan Sharp, the Assistant Director of Newcastle Art Gallery has been pacing the scene like a nervous father since not long after sunrise. He had to be here to see this event for himself, afraid that he might arrive in Sydney's Walsh Bay and find that it was all a dream. That Wendy had changed her mind. Or that the local residents had chained themselves to the artwork like protestors to a Laman Street fig.
Wendy Whiteley, however, has steeled herself for this moment.
"It's two things; it's both sad and exciting," says Wendy, "a bit like life, really. But people don't chain themselves to artworks yet."
"I'm sad to see it leaving here because it's closer to home but it's going to nice place, it's going to a nice home."
The decision to move Black Totem II to Newcastle is an extraordinary gift to the people of the city. But it also fulfils Wendy's desire to protect the artwork.
"I was concerned about what the fate of it was going to be and I was considering gifting it to Sydney but although it's a great site it's not really a public site, the land is not owned by the public here in Sydney. So it was suggested to me (by the director of Newcastle Art Gallery, Ron Ramsey) and I thought, OK."
"You were going to get the new building at that time but that hasn't happened, so it's kind of compensation for the people of Newcastle and I've always loved Newcastle."
Tristan Sharp can't quite believe that the Whiteley is coming to Newcastle, "I've woken up in the middle of the night wondering if people might be chained to it to stop it leaving Sydney. It's a really exciting day."
"It's an amazing gift (from Wendy). Our Director, Ron Ramsey, has been talking to Wendy for about a year negotiating this. She doesn't part with Brett's work very easily but she thinks Newcastle is the right place for this to be permanently, it's wonderful."
Black Totem II is one of only two large sculptures ever produced by the late Australian artist, Brett Whiteley. Tristan Sharp describes it as unique, "The other is the matchsticks ('Almost Once') outside the NSW Art Gallery of NSW, and now Black Totem II - the bird's nest. It will be an iconic piece, like many others in the collection, but it will be outside the gallery, in front of the building, people will see it - I believe people will travel to see it, it will be a real marker of the cultural precinct of the city."
Newcastle Art Gallery has 12 works from Brett Whiteley, including Summer At Carcoar which was commissioned to mark the opening of the 1977 art gallery building, but Newcastle was also the first public art gallery to purchase work by a very young Brett Whiteley.
"He has a long history with Newcastle Art Gallery," says Tristan. "He was 20 years old in 1959 and visionary director Gil Docking acquired one of the works that was one done for a scholarship exhibition. Brett won the scholarship and that got him to Italy."
"He came to Newcastle and painted, he donated work, he borrowed 'Carcoar' back in to display in the Wynne Prize in 1978 and he won the Wynne with that painting. We've got letters from him thanking the gallery for doing that, he just loved Newcastle and the people of Newcastle love him. Every time we show Brett Whiteley they come out of the woodwork and we hope they will again when Black Totem II comes. I think people will be very proud of it."
Wendy admits she doesn't know a lot about that early picture, "We were talking about it recently and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. But 'Carcoar' they've had for a long time and I can't wait to see Black Totem II up again."
She also thinks it's a great loss for Sydney, "I think it's one of the most important pieces of public sculpture the city has had."
Wendy Whiteley is visibly nervous about the process of moving Black Totem II. At one point she whispers that she could cry. It's apparent watching her face that this egg and nest on a 10-metre high pole is far more than five tonnes of metal and fibreglass. This is a tangible link to her late husband and she knows she'll never be this close to it again.
"After all these years I've just touched it. It's fantastic. Once it's up there you don't get the opportunity to do that but it's great, it's bringing back a lot of memories of it being made, the changes that were made and getting it right at the end. It's great!"
"It was a lot of work by quite a few people. We'd go out for lunches and we'd discuss it and it wound up here (Walsh Bay) because it didn't have a home, really. But now it's going to a final resting place."
Brett's original design for Black Totem II was made of wood but was ultimately made in steel and fibreglass.
"When you're going to do an outdoor piece, which is a lesson we learned from 'Almost Once' outside the NSW Art Gallery, is that parrots love the wood, and wood disintegrates. In my garden I've got bush timber rails and every now and then they have be changed. Obviously a piece this big couldn't be made for the outdoors except in steel. But the detailing I had changed and I think we got it right."
Wendy says the egg was originally too pointy, "It was too sharp so I had it rounded off on the end. It didn't look like an egg, it looked more like a bomb! So I had it softened. But those are the details we worked on at the end, and choosing the colour for the base."
What does she think Brett would think of his finished work?
"I think he'd be alright. I dunno. He'd be alright, I mean he'd be fine. I think he'd be pissed off that Sydney, as usual, took him for granted." Wendy bites her tongue and leaves that topic there.
But she doesn't hold back about her frustration with the stopping of the redevelopment of the Newcastle Art Gallery.
"I think it's very sad that whoever intervened and said, 'No, we're not doing it,' seems to me to be typically Australian."
"Originally Brett was going to do a public piece for the headland at Bondi. Ironically it now has that sculpture walk every year but at the time they said, 'No, what we need here in public parks is toilets and swings,' It's fairly typical of Australia."
So what are we doing right?
"We're doing this!"
"There's a lot more public acknowledgement that it's important to a city or any given place to have works of art. I dunno. Look, I dunno what we're going right except living in the minute."
"In the end it's all about money and maintenance but the people in the future have to say what they want. People get worried about their jobs and paying their bills and the last thing they're thinking about is public art."
For a small group of Novocastrians present for the preparation and removal of the artwork, sharing a sunny Saturday morning with Wendy Whiteley has been strangely moving.
Wendy admits to mixed emotions, "It's been very emotional, I'm surprised. It's bringing up a lot of memories and at this moment I'm kind of going through the mourning phase, and when I get to Newcastle I'll go through the celebration phase, hopefully."
"I love this sculpture, I think it's an amazingly good piece. People would say I'm very biased but it was interesting to hear that a lot of other people have come to love it while it's been here."
"But hopefully the same kind of love of it will happen in Newcastle. If it was coming down and going into storage I'd be very, very sad. But the fact is it's coming down and going somewhere else."
Whiteley On Water Exhibition - Newcastle October 2013
The Whiteley on Water exhibition has been curated in association with the Brett Whiteley Studio and the Art Gallery of NSW, celebrates our nation's 'cult of the coastal life style' and includes Whiteley's unfinished Bondi Beach polyptych.
The exhibition will be opened by Wendy Whiteley at 2pm on Saturday, 2 November 2013, including the official presentation of Black Totem II to the Newcastle Art Gallery, and will run until 23 February 2013.
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