Kolap Spinning Tops celebrated at the return of Saylor Park

Members of the Saylor and other Torres Strait Islander families were proudly present at the opening and reinstatement of Saylor Park in Wickham in Western Australia’s far north on 24 October 2014. Local Torres Strait Islanders performed traditional dances and singing for the occasion and children and adults alike got their first chance to try out Brian Robinson’s highly coloured play-based sculptures which are derived from a cultural spinning top or kolap from the eastern islands of Zenadh Kes [Torres Strait].

Two of the three tops display a different Torres Strait Islander motif design, which explores Torres Strait Islander patterns. Both of these motifs are derived from Robinson’s linocut prints that echo Zenadh Kes mythology and custom. The third motif is based on the cockleshell, a staple food source for the local Aboriginal custodians – the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people. As these individual sculptural elements rotate slowly, like the game of spinning tops, children and adults can play and interact to see who can spin these oversized tops the longest.

The launch of the park and this commission tops off a big year for Robinson having just recently seen another commission, Warual, launched as part of the opening of the new Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane on 29 November, 2014. Robinson’s carving prowess will be translated once again into concrete discs on the new Hospital site with a further commission underway for the adjacent Centre for Children’s Health Research (CCHR).

For the CCHR project Robinson is exploring the theme of embryonic beginnings expressed through turtle hatchlings Waru Kazi [meaning young turtle]. This proposal is an extension of the Warual concept that explored the migration patterns of three particular turtle species – Hawksbill turtle, Green turtle and Loggerhead turtle.

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