Place | Oceania: Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra |
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Accession Number | ART90770 |
Collection type | Art |
Measurement | Overall: 28.0 x 30.5 x 18.6 cm |
Object type | Sculpture |
Physical description | plaster cast reinforced with fibre, watercolour wash and pencil grid marks |
Maker |
Bowles, Leslie Ewers, Raymond Boultwood |
Place made | Australia: Victoria, Melbourne |
Date made | c. 1939 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain |
Cuscus gargoyle
This plaster model for a gargoyle depicts the head of a cuscus. The plaster model was created in the studio of William Leslie Bowles in Melbourne with the assistance of sculptor, Ray Ewers. In 1940 and 1941 the plaster cast was used as the template for a stonemason to carve an in-situ sandstone gargoyle in the cloisters of the Commemorative Courtyard of the Australian War Memorial.
The common Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) is a cuscus, a marsupial that lives in the Cape York region of Australia, New Guinea, and nearby smaller islands. Spotted Cuscus is a member along with its more common "brother" the Grey Cuscus of the Phalanger family a type of Possum (Australia's largest). It is a rare animal to see as it is very shy and being nocturnal it sleeps most of the day crouched in a branch. Males are white with chestnut and gray spots; females are gray; dense, woolly fur; short snout; small, red-rimmed eyes; round face; small ears; long, prehensile tail.