Now Zarathustra, or Zoraster as he's also known, is the prophet of the Zoroastrian faith, but you in fact got the name from your interest in the philosophy of Nietzsche, didn't you? Through the figure I'm trying to say something, very definitely, and in fact I gave it the name that I did after long sort of ponderings about what he might be actually saying.Īlan Saunders: And the name you gave it as we know, was Zarathustra. So I looked at that the following day and I thought, Gee, this is going to make a sculpture.
Whenever something like that comes to you, it seems like it's coming from some other place. I woke one night with this image and sketched it down immediately in my journal. Peter Schipperheyn: The idea actually came to me as a dream. Peter Schipperheyn: No, actually at this point the name is unresolved, in my mind at least, and due to the outpouring of anger that I received from Zoroastrian community all over the world, in deference to them, and the fact that Dame Elizabeth Murdoch and the gallery were unaware of the name Zarathustra in the Zoroastrian community, I was asked whether I would consider the name change, due to the sort of outburst that occurred.Īlan Saunders: Well I want to come on to that in a minute, but the sculpture was an idea in your head before it had a name, wasn't it? What were you trying to do? He has a clenched fist, which is covered by an open hand.Īlan Saunders: Now this sculpture was originally going to be called Zarathustra it's now called Thus Spake or.? His head leans back, looking up towards the sky or towards the metaphysical, if you like. Peter Schipperheyn: Well, it's a 4 metre high, male nude cast in bronze.
Here's the sculptor Peter Schipperheyn to tell us why. But before it was a useful bit of music for Stanley Kubrick, it was a symphonic poem written by Richard Strauss in 1896, little more than ten years after the publication of the work from which it draws its inspiration and title: Also sprach Zarathustra, or Thus Spake Zarathustra by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.Īnd Thus Spake Zarathustra was almost the title of a sculpture commissioned by the Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Sculpture Fund for the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park in Melbourne. Music: Track 1 Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard StraussĪlan Saunders: And if you thought that was the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey, well I suppose you were right. Alan Saunders: Hi, and on ABC Radio National, this is The Philosopher's Zone, with me, Alan Saunders.Īnd we're kicking straight off this week with a bit of music.
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