Open Monument: acknowledging the Chinese contribution to Ballarat.

BACKGROUND Open Monument is a public artwork by Times Two Architects (Richard Black) in collaboration with the artist John Young, to recognise the contribution of the Chinese population of Ballarat and the surrounding regions since 1850. It consists of 33 etched stone panels, a time line, walls, a sculpted mound of earth and a series of ground surface treatments, with a construction budget of $200,000. CONTRIBUTION Open Monument challenges the traditional typology of a monument in the park - by structuring a more ambiguous and shifting set of relationships with its setting. As a series of territorial markers it forges an unexpected interaction between the public life of the park and the cultural role of the monument by defining the edge of a run-down recreation reserve and providing a space for memory. It demonstrates Black's scholarship of site knowledge and a studied response to the Chinese diaspora and their history in the Australasian region. SIGNIFICANCE Commissioned by the City of Ballarat, it was selected from a two stage competition process: firstly, as one of three teams shortlisted from a public expression of interest, then selected as the winning scheme in a limited competition of 3 teams. The completed work was launched by the Mayor of Ballarat and the Consul-General of the People's Republic of China. As an artwork in the public domain, the work is of national historical and cultural significance. It provides a place for local pride and identity, through history and storytelling of Ballarat's Cultural Heritage.