Marion Borgelt, AD ASTRA, 2022. Photo: Daryl Charles.
Image description: Artist Marion Borgelt stands on a wide open stairwell next to Dr Julie Townsend, Headmistress of St Catherine’s School Sydney. Marion is wearing a black blouse and pants and Julie is wearing a sky blue dress. Both are gazing upon the large sculpture of interconnected circles hanging in the open area of the stairwell.
St. Catherine’s School Sydney is an inspiring school where teachers imbue in their students a love of learning and a desire to soar. At 164 years old, it is the oldest Independent girls’ school in Australia. In mid 2020 Soda Arts was engaged to work with the school to commission an outstanding permanent artwork for their monumental new Performing Arts and Aquatic Centre.
Integrity, Resilience, Respect, Relationship, and Service: these are the values of St Catherine’s, though the guiding light may well be the words of the school’s founder, Jane Barker, who said in the 1850s that “the daughters will crown the hill and command the pre-eminence”. This was a bold statement at a time when women couldn't vote, career prospects were limited, and access to an education was uncommon for many girls.
Despite this, Jane Barker founded St Catherine’s and made a visionary statement about the capacity of daughters and what they would contribute to the world. That quote, along with the values of the school, became the departure point for the curatorial rationale for the commission.
So what kind of artwork for a school with such a rich history?
Four leading Australian artist teams were invited to present their vision for the school and ultimately the Art Committee chose artist Marion Borgelt’s AD ASTRA (meaning “to the stars”), a soaring and fluid sculpture of lightweight gravitas that will hang in the entrance stairwell of the schools’ new facility.
Marion Borgelt. image courtesy the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert
Image description: Artist Marion Borgelt stands in her studio. She is wearing a black long-sleeved top and trousers. She has short dark hair and is wearing dark-rimmed circular framed glasses. She is standing next to a cabinet with paints and paint brushes on it.
Marion Borgelt is a leading Australian artist with a 40-year-old oeuvre of highly crafted, visually spectacular works. Her work is represented in all major Australian museums and numerous regional, university and corporate collections throughout Australia and overseas.
For St. Catherine’s, Marion has created a suspended, kinetic sculpture that will gently rotate and move in response to the movement of air around it.
The entire sculpture is built upon the values and character of St Catherine’s, and every element in the sculpture is symbolic. It is inspired both by the stars of the Southern Cross on St Catherine's crest while also reflecting a philosophy of reaching “for the stars”. The work’s colour palette is inspired by the night sky.
We take our hat off to Dr Julie Townsend and the Art Commission team for their pioneering mindset to invite a contemporary artist into their school to create something so substantial and that will become part of the daily life of their students. AD ASTRA will be a bold and striking legacy that many generations of St. Catherine’s students, staff and alumni can enjoy for decades to come.
AD ASTRA launched in January 2022.
Marion Borgelt is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney
Marion Borgelt, concept illustration for AD ASTRA, 2022. Image courtesy the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert.
Image description: A computer-generated illustration of the sculpture. It is a series of interconnected ultramarine blue and yellow discs hanging in a large stairwell. The angle is standing underneath the sculpture looking up.