Observatory

Bruce Allan’s Observatory was a simple sculpture, a staircase leading to nowhere, based on the shape of the early astronomical observatories in India. Situated by a sheltered pond in an area of trees bounded by thicker plantation, it was painted black as a foil to the forest’s light and life. A viewing platform at the top of the staircase, and a small niche under the stairs, allowed visitors to pause and contemplate the forest.

In the artist’s words, writing in 1990: “At one time [the pond] acted as a small reservoir, storing water that was pumped to the Speech House. It is dammed on one side forming the only straight line in this part of the forest, and this line should be seen as a counterpoint to the base line of the sculpture which runs in parallel. Observatory points out the movement in the trees. Shifting sunlight and shadows camouflage the sculpture and trace the movement of the sun. The understairs room faces north-east and remains a dark space at all times.

I am grateful to Gary Trigg for his hospitality to myself and others, and for the warmth, friendship interest of several old foresters, including Stan Short. Retired as a miner in 1959, “Short Stan” is 87 and goes for a seven mile walk every Sunday. I’ve since seen him acting as a guide on the trail. Two other miners introduced themselves as the two Bills unpaid, still working as freeminers, who understood the dark understairs space, and saw the view, a frame of light and colour, as the same as that from within the entrance to a mine.”