The Eternal Question
Richard Tipping
The Eternal Question - a granite sculpture, was made for the Festival of Adelaide in 1982 and was originally installed on the banks of the River Torrens.
It is made up of six large blocks of hewn black granite in a circle. Each block has two words carved into its sides, saying IS or IT or IF. The central block has a spiral question mark carved into it, with the dot representing the sun, and faces west. “The three words stand for the essentials: IT -matter, IS -being, IF -mind. The eternal question is of course why are we here at all’.
After the festival, the sculpture was set to become a part of the breakwater being built at Robe, but was saved in 1983 by Ron Radford, who selected it for an exhibition of recent sculpture. It was then donated to the Art Gallery by the artists mother and step-father in 1984, and was given a home in Light Square in 2003.