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Cameron Best

Virtual iceberg off Victorian coast features in sculpture festival

Artist Seol Park iceberg off the coast of Lorne, which is only visible through an app.

It sounds like it's lifted from the pages of the Hans Christian Andersen tale about the emperor's new clothes.

Victoria's largest sculpture exhibition features a work which is invisible — unless you have the app.

Called En plein air or In plain sight, it is an augmented reality artwork by New York-based artist Seol Park and UK painter John Kelly, which puts an iceberg off the coast of Lorne.

People with the app can point their smartphones in the direction of the iceberg and see it on their screens.

While it only exists in the virtual world, the work serves to push the boundary of what is defined as a sculpture.

"It's a really interesting illusion that's kind of based in a reality in our head," curator Lara Nicholls said.

The Lorne Sculpture Biennale features 40 projects on display by 43 artists from around the world, breaking down the traditional white walls of an art gallery and taking the works into the environment of Victoria's coastline.

"So many artists have been working so hard mentally and physically to create the work, to position it in the outdoor arena, which is one of the most challenging arenas for an artist to work in," Ms Nicholls said.

"They find that their work tends to get subsumed by the landscape."

This year's theme is Landfall, with works exploring the relationship between humanity and the environment.

With works dotted along a four-kilometre stretch of the Lorne foreshore from the famous pier to the Erskine River, their resilience to the natural elements creates more drama to the art.

"The artists really lift, they really have to push themselves beyond normal to be able to create work for this space," Ms Nicholls said.

"There's a great energy in the town when the artists are all here, creating work and what once was on the drawing board, now it's in reality."

The Lorne Sculpture Biennale runs until April 2.

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