Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, Leonard DiCaprio and Meryl Streep have all held high the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) sculpture that signifies excellence in the movie industry, but few realise the sculpture they are holding is the work of WA artist Ron Gomboc.
And that’s something that gets the 78-year-old annoyed.
Surrounded by some of his sculptures on display at his impressive Swan Valley sculpture park which includes a stunning gallery of paintings from some of WA’s leading artists, Ron says he is miffed at the lack of appreciation for his work.
He came up with the design for the AACTA 14 years ago and has been making the awards each year since then at his Middle Swan studio, although now, Ron believes AACTA is trying to take the making of the statues away from him to be manufactured more cheaply somewhere like China.
The sculpture is unique in the film industry in that it has Ron’s name engraved on the bottom of each one. They are prized possessions that feature in collections of people involved in the film industry, both in Australia and when it is presented once a year in Los Angeles as part of Australia Week.
“I have just returned from the Gold Coast where I was invited to be part of the presentation of this year’s award and it was heart-warming to see so many brilliant actors, film producers, and sound producers being awarded my sculpture,” says Ron.
“It was interesting for me to be there because of people that I’m familiar with in the film and television industry like Tom Gleeson, who won two awards. I introduced myself and said, congratulations on winning these awards.
“They’re wonderful, aren’t they great?” he said.
Ron told him he was the designer and Gleeson asked for a photograph with him.
“For me, it was quite exciting because these people were taking away an original signed piece of my artwork as well.”
It was Gleeson’s fifth AACTA which he told Ron were all in a prominent place, and nobody was allowed to go near them, but he had never noticed the Gomboc name until Ron pointed it out.
“it’s been an achievement in my career being able to design the award. And I made a big one, which is at the front there,” said Ron.
“I’m still having a lot of issues with the Australian Film Institute (AFI), because they made me sign a contract where it’s my copyright but they have disregarded that and they got someone else to make them where they cut me out of it
“I’m getting some legal advice now on what I should do, because I’m worried that they’re not going to order the next lot with me, they’re just going to order it in China and get them to put my name on it.”
The AACTA project started in 2011 when Ron was exhibiting at Sculpture By The Sea in Sydney.
“That year the organisation was looking for sculptors who might have been interested in putting a design forward.”
Ron says he was approached to apply.
More than 60 sculptors sent in submissions but Ron heard nothing back for months, thinking the job had gone to somebody else.
He eventually heard that he’d been shortlisted and he was given a brief.
“It has to be bronze. It has to be gold-plated. It has to have all these attributes; it has to be figurative but abstract. It has to have a point of the Southern Cross. It has to have a gender but without being male or female.”
Ron made two models and sent off images. He got a ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ kind of message and again, thought that was the end of it.
Then he was asked to bring the models to Melbourne and as luck would have it Ron was going to be in Sydney for Sculpture By The
Sea. On his way back to Perth, called into Melbourne.
He got the job and by then, of course, the sculptures were urgently needed.
“They wanted it tomorrow. They think you pull it out of your pocket, so there was quite a bit of pressure, but I got the job done.”
Making the award that first year was difficult because it required a 3D sculpture in multiples.
“I had to think very quickly, I made the original, and then I had dies made and then they had to be gold-plated. I went to see Heath Ledger’s father who does gold plating and they pushed it through very quickly.
“I did two of them. I signed them and then went over to Melbourne and they said, yep, yep, yep, everything’s fine.
“Now we want 80 of them – in a fortnight! I was able to do all that under a lot of pressure.
“It takes a lot of my knowledge as a sculptor. I’ve been bronze casting for a long, long time. One of the biggest jobs that I’ve done was two life-size, bronze horses for the Sultan of Brunei.
“I went over to Melbourne for the official AACTA launch.
“They totally ignored me, because they had other plans for the sculpture. They wanted the sculpture, but they didn’t want my name on it because they would like to have it produced in India.
“Even, would you believe it, up to today, my name is not mentioned on the stage.” He said.
