myday #7 - Strange Sculptures In The Middle of Australia (Well not quite the middle)

Lake Ballard I'm guessing isn't a place you have probably heard of until now. It's a strange place, but what's really interesting is this mostly parched salt lake is home to some of the weirdest looking sculptures in the middle of nowhere... and when I say remote, I mean it!

A lone male figure isolated against the backdrop of an arid salt lake

To get to this art installation you first must fly into Perth, Western Australia, the most isolated capital city in the world. From there you can either catch a one hour flight to one of Australia's oldest gold mining towns called Kalgoorlie (pronounced Cal-goul-le) or drive roughly six and a half hours by car. Once you are there, travel another 4 hours and 40 minutes by car and you will arrive to scenes like this...

The expansive West Australian sky puts the lone statue into perspective. The heat can be seen in the form of a mirage on the horizon

The Menzies Sculptures were formed and installed by Antony Gormley, who happens to be a a Turner Prize-winning artist who presented these works at the 2003 Perth International Arts festival. Since then thousands of tourists have visited the area, including well know English actor Sir Ian McKellen (of Lord of the Rings fame).

You can almost feel their souls

The fifty sculptures dotted around the large lake were reflections of the local men and women from the surrounding area. The artist asked each local volunteer to strip down and step into a 3D scanning machine so that their form could be recorded. These forms were eventually tuned into moulds and presented to the State. Since the installation, some of the people have passed away, but the memory of them live on in the form of these statues.

The sculptures also included local women

Each sculpture was situated a fair distance apart from each other, making for a grand scene

I was very fortunate to be able to go to this amazing area and I can recommend you visit it to. If you ever end up in Perth, spend a few days travelling to this area, because once you're there you won't want to leave. It really is a breathtaking flat landscape.

I'm Leigh, from Sydney Australia and through @steemit I'm seeing what its like to explore @myday. Not in any particular order, or particular time frame but just parts of @myday through my eyes and sometimes the cameras lens.

If you are interested in reading about myself and my beautiful partner Grace then have a read of myday #0 where everything is explained. If you enjoyed reading this post I welcome you to upvote this article and follow me. Please drop me a comment as I would love to hear from you!