Perhaps having to wait later in the year for this annual Sculpture Survey enhanced my enjoyment of the exhibition. The experience of finding exhibits around the grounds is more pleasurable in the cool Autumn air then hot Summer sun, plus a later start allows students more time to hone their work and select it's place in the landscape. All good.

Of the thirty outside student exhibits, the works by Edith Cowan University's Arlene Frances and Simone Hicks, and Curtin University's Adriana Fernades-Goncalves and Richard Foulds, seemed to hold my attention in situ and remain on my mind long after leaving the exhibition.

Lens by Frances is a well considered exhibit that comments on the appropriation of cultural symbols for use as decorative motifs. Symbols hold great potency in their proper time and place and had the artist presented her statement in a different medium or position, it may have been misunderstood. However, by placing the thick glass roundel hosting images from the Shang, Inca and Myan civilizations, wedged between a bare forked branch, in nature, near water, where the sun can shine through it, she reminds us of the power owned by firmly held belief systems.

I have no idea what Plonk by Simone Hicks is meant to be yet I still love it. The clear perspex is neatly etched, the 'face' finely formed, the tri-pod stands secure suggesting a futuristic altar. However the title makes me think it has something to do with a modern wine bar! Either way it illustrates a unique idea transformed into well presented object.

Fernades-Goncalves' The Hanging Post is composed of dried palm seeds hanging from a crossbar made from folded palm fronds tied to a sturdy pole. The use of this particular plant in a cruciform structure evokes meditation on religious concepts, as well as executions for individuals' beliefs. This is an intelligent, evocative and well made exhibit.

Foulds too makes us think with his Neighbourhood Watch. In this case our thoughts are closer to home, in particular the paranoia of suburban living. Well made house shaped white boxes are laid on the grass, cheek by jowl, to evoke the sense of a housing estate. Each 'house' contains an open eye staring not out to the street but up at the sky. I've heard of an 'eye IN the sky' so this must be 'eyes ON the sky'. They seem to be watching for danger that might rain down on their neat, fenced, alarmed, locked, safe little community.

Inside the gallery even more delights await. In particular Curtin University Regional Education Student, Tania Spencer's knitted galvanized wire installations Arum Attack and Bind Weed Tangle. Each group includes a floor to ceiling forest of the most elegant and flexible renditions of those deadly blooms that choke out native flora. Excellent work. But if galloping giant flowers aren't your thing, in the back gallery there is a herd of ceramic cattle thundering across a red soil plain. Mustering is Broome artist Angela Bakker's impressive collection of individual pieces, each owning a sense of power and freedom.

Power and freedom is also read in the abstract works by invited New South Wales Artists. At first glance Philip Spelman's unique state bronze compositions seem inert but there is a hint of life within. Each well composed arrangement involves solid shapes that may, in the mind of the viewer, reference flowers or trees, boats or remnants of human structures. More rhythmic but having the same sense of strength are works by Russell McQuilty. Rubbed with blood red paint these broad flat bands of steel seem to have an internal dynamic that sets them to spiral and bend into abstract compositions of their own volition. David Teer's geometric shapes of steel are painted in happy colours to produce a collection of abstract floor sculptures. These are wonderful things that seem to relate to the child within. Somewhat more sophisticated are the perspex and steel 'boxes' by Campbell Robertson-Swann. These elegant plinth works suggest ideal proportions all the while providing a certain sense of mystery.

Also much appreciated are the small and monumental works by French artist, Jean-Pierre Rives. One feels as if his drawn lines have jumped off the page of a sketch book and transformed into steel. The small works in the gallery own a certain sense of 'decorum' while the large presentations around the grounds are like solid scribbles. All are beautiful balanced, stable structures that have a strong sense of internal energy.

All in all this is yet another excellent presentation of sculptural works from emerging and well established artists. Do see it, and enjoy the search for interesting works well placed around the grounds.