The Voyager arrives in Rockhampton
Published on 17 July 2024
Rockhampton Museum of Art (RMOA) has unveiled the latest addition to its collection – a sculpture created and donated by internationally renowned and Archibald prize-winning artist, Tim Storrier.
Valued at approximately $250,000 and weighing in at around 200kg the statue, titled The Voyager, has been installed outside the front of RMOA on Quay Street.
The statue is made entirely of bronze and is of an anonymous person, holding a piece of paper in one hand, a jerry can in the other, with their face covered and body loaded with essential objects for a journey.
The donation was facilitated by Philip Bacon Galleries, which has had a longstanding relationship with Rockhampton Museum of Art and previously Rockhampton Art Gallery.
Tim Storrier described the Voyager:
“The figure is entirely imaginative. The character is anonymous. The face shrouded, the body loaded with objects and equipment for the journey - shoulder bags, packs and parcels of unspecified materials (food, art materials, surveying implements, markers, soap, a towel, matches and a gun) all to equip the Voyager with what he may need for his endless wanderings,” Storrier said.
“What is not clear is where the Voyager is destined or if he even knows; possibly a fool without bearings, lost but headed towards the endless horizon or maybe a stoic surveyor marching into the setting sun,” he said.
The creative process involved several preliminary sketches followed by four painted canvases, each from a different point of view. These canvases, which became the construction plans to create The Voyager, were variations on the theme that Storrier explored in another work, the Wayfarer – a painting which won the Archibald prize in 2012.
Rockhampton Regional Council Communities and Heritage spokesperson, Cr Drew Wickerson, thanked Tim Storrier for the donation of the work.
“On behalf of Rockhampton Regional Council I would like to thank Tim Storrier and Philip Bacon Galleries for this extremely generous donation,” he said.
“It is a very exciting addition to the RMOA Collection. Our collection of artworks by contemporary artists is already the envy of many galleries throughout Australia and this donation will certainly help to reinforce this reputation,” he said.
“Not only is it a valuable addition to the collection but it is a fascinating piece to view.
Its positioning at the front of RMOA will also bring a new visual element to Quay Street,” Cr Wickerson.
The Voyager is not the first artwork by Storrier in RMOA’s collection. An earlier work, a painting titled Above the plains of circa II (1976), was one of the pieces in the Rockhampton’s Foundation Collection, acquired through the efforts of Mayor Rex Pilbeam, the Right Reverand John Bayton and others in 1977.
Rockhampton Museum of Art is owned and operated by Rockhampton Regional Council.
PHOTO: RMOA Director Jonathan McBurnie with Time Storrier's The Voyager.