One of the works in the superb Townsville Strand Ephemera 2019 , North Queensland's Sculpture Festival , is the above gleaming white Sweet Barrier Reef , made from sugar, sugar paste , vegetable gum , polystyrene foam and timber by Ken and Julia Yonetani .
To the many young children strolling along The Strand with their parents it no doubt looks like a sandpit , so they rush forward and hop on the delicate object , despite a sign : THIS ARTWORK FRAGILE DO NOT TOUCH .
When the waterfront roundsman was admiring and discussing the sculpture with an alert attendant , several children had to be hauled away . There appeared to be little hand and footprints in the surface . With the display running until August 4 , Sweet Barrier Reef could be reduced to pulverised sugar crystals .
Like a Crown of Thorns attack on the reef , signs of little feet and hands on the sugar. The work was made in response to the devastating coral bleaching events as a result of climate change, river run off , dredging and over fishing . A version of it was exhibited in the 2009 Venice Biennale .
In this display, Coral Bleaching , by Leela Chakravarti and Edward O'Brien , the pots represent dead coral .
