About the artist
Anton Hasell is a sculptor living in Central Victoria exploring the use of traditional and digital tools in the design of bells, interactive public-space installation, sculpture and printmaking. He is best known for creating the Federation Bells Carillon in Melbourne and other public-space artworks in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Through his practice, Anton seeks insights into the mysterious and subliminal truths of the Australian landscape, whose rhythms operate as a resonant and binding experience linking each of us to our country and one another.
Anton Hasell creates new forms that seek to tune into the resonant frequencies of the Australian landscape and manifest its ambient sonorities. Inventing new forms, new sounds and joyful public sites to encourage communal playfulness and shared creativity has resulted in a concise and exciting body of work promising. Anton lives and works in Mia Mia with his partner in a bluestone house they built.
It is through his bells that Anton is most renowned. He even has a doctorate on bells in public spaces! Bells are considered important instruments across cultures and have been known throughout history to ring in celebration, as a warning, or to convey the passing of time. Hasell has a great understanding of the role of bell art in the community, and also for his revolutionary methods, combining ancient, traditional arts with digital technology, which has even seen him invent a new bell. As much as he enjoys hearing them clang, Hasell says he doesn’t make bells to make music. Rather, his interest lies in their history, their role as sacred objects in religion, and the science of bell curves. He says his role in creating art for public spaces is to make it fun and interactive, to bring people together in playfulness and joy.
About the work
Twisted Bell was commissioned to provide further opportunities for passers-by to interact with and celebrate the Yarra River. The artwork's surface reflects natural light and the movement of nearby water whilst its twisting shape evokes the native river eel in motion. Twisted Bell is a polished bronze sculpture; When touched by hand, the hollow structure emits a low, rumbling sound, as if giving voice to its surroundings. The multi-sensory sculpture is an extension of Hasell's ongoing research into the science and art of bell design. Twisted Bell was created to compliment Council's Yarra River Biodiversity project and provides further opportunity for the community to interact with and celebrate the Yarra River along the river’s edge, near Cremorne Bridge, on the highest-use commuting path in the municipality.
Features
Anton Hasell developed the twisted bell form using 3D digital modelling software. The more ‘free-form’ acoustic properties of the twist bell expose to our ears for the first-time resonant frequencies that abound in the Australian landscape.
Opening day
At the official opening of the artwork, Anton Hassell rang the bell and spoke of the bell sound as a meditation on the thousands of generations of people living on the banks of the Yarra, as a call to the returning eels to the Yarra River as well as a resonant frequent that calls all Melbournians home.