“SARASWATI” is the Indonesian goddess of knowledge, music and all the creative arts and was a gift of the Indonesian Government to commemorate the opening of the Chancelry as the administrative centre of the Australian National University in Canberra in 1963.
John Stevens, our landscape architect within the ANU Design Unit, and I collaborated on the design of the pool and its simple sculptural supports. To be pragmatic the boxes also hide the rather ugly plumbing on the bottom of the wall behind – hence the need for movable planter boxes to provide future access.
Indonesian students worship Saraswati to perform well in examinations.
The bronze sculpture of a young student intent on study was sculpted and cast by students in Djakarta, Indonesia and we were able to have it all in place for the opening ceremony.
Architects for the building – Yuncken Freeman, Melbourne.