An inflatable art piece that made a grand entrance at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and then vanished has now reappeared in an art exhibition in rural NSW.<\/p>\n
Two-time Archibald finalist and creator of iconic surf brand Mambo, Reg Mombassa’s skeleton fish motif was part of the parade during the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics but for the next 23 years, the whereabouts of the inflatable were unknown.<\/p>\n
That is, until artist and director of Coonabarabran’s Space Art Gallery Allison Reynolds made a rare discovery at an online auction two years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The inflatable fish is hard to miss when passing through Coonabarabran. (ABC Western Plains: Lily Plass\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Ms Reynolds had an inkling who the artist behind the fish with its supersized tongue and distinctive lips was and obtained the art piece for $250 \u2014 including shipping.<\/p>\n
She said the fish was alongside big sale signs, inflatable stick figures and other advertising devices.<\/p>\n
“Whereas this is quite obviously a piece of art,” Ms Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Millions witnessed the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics where the skeletal fish motif was on display. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
After contacting Reg Mombassa’s studio, Ms Reynolds confirmed that the fish was indeed the work of the artist.<\/p>\n
He designed 12 six-metre inflatables, two 20-metre helium-filled dirigibles, three stages and 16 inflatable crowd balls for the Sydney Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the arena to the country\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Reynolds thought the skeleton fish motif would make a nice addition to her art gallery.<\/p>\n
“I thought it was going to look amazing above the roof line because we have the old shop frontage with a corrugated iron verandah poking out,” Ms Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
“I had visitors come through the other day, on the way to Townsville and they said they had to drop in to [see] Reg Mombassa art piece and what was going on.”<\/p>\n
The exhibition includes other mentions of the skeleton fish motif, dating back to 1990.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allison Reynolds says she opened the Space Art Gallery in 2017. (ABC Western Plains: Lily Plass\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Chris O’Doherty, whose artistic name is Reg Mombassa, believes after the Olympics, the inflatables were either sold off or stored in the Powerhouse, while others were used for festivals and events.<\/p>\n
“I was just pleased that someone was using one of the inflatables from the Olympics,” Mombassa said.<\/p>\n
“I hope that people that come from the town or elsewhere find it amusing and have a good time basically.”<\/p>\n
Chris O’Doherty is better known as Reg Mombassa, and his style is popularised through Mambo Graphics. (ABC News: Eloise Fuss)<\/p>\n
The sculpture has been weather-resistant so far, but to make the art piece more stable, Ms Reynolds had it filled with expanding foam.<\/p>\n
“This is thick vinyl because obviously during the Olympics, you don’t want it blowing away,” Ms Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
Artwork brings visitors<\/p>\n
The fish has caught the eye of many locals in town.<\/p>\n
“I thought it was quite amazing and unique. It was lovely that we could get something so different here,” local Sue Forbes said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sue Forbes says she recognised the art as Reg Mombassa’s once someone pointed it out. (ABC Western Plains: Lily Plass)<\/p>\n
“I’ve been away for a few days and then came back. And there it was. It’s just a lovely expression of imagination. Just exciting, frivolous, life-asserting,” local Laura Hartley said.<\/p>\n
Laura Hartley, who settled in Coonabarabran from Scotland in the 1970s, created her own fish-themed art through weaving for the exhibition.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Laura Hartley says she is inspired by Indigenous fish traps. (ABC Western Plains: Lily Plass\u00a0)<\/p>\n
“I understand the fascination of the ways things are constructed in the natural world,” Ms Hartley said.<\/p>\n
“Fish have got life of their own. They invite people, I hope, to get people engaged with plant material.”<\/p>\n
Bones are a red thread through Mombassa’s work.<\/p>\n
“I do the bones of people, of cars, of trucks, of guns. I do the bone structure of variety [of] things that don’t actually have bone structure,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Bones are structurally and graphically interesting. They have that indication of a living creature that’s died. So, there’s always that kind of aging paranormal aspect of a bone or a skeleton.”<\/p>\n
Ms Reynold’s hope for the fish is that it does not go back to a box.<\/p>\n
“It deserves to be seen by the public in other galleries or outside.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An inflatable art piece that made a grand entrance at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and then vanished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99018,99021,64,63,99023,99022,134,99019,99017,99024,99020,99015],"class_list":["post-146351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-2000-olympics","tag-allison-reynolds","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coona-art","tag-coonabarabran-art","tag-entertainment","tag-inflatable-art-sydney-olympics","tag-reg-mombassa","tag-skeleton-fish-motif","tag-space-art-gallery","tag-sydney-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}