Untitled by Margel Hinder
Story compiled from research by Lisa Conolly
Figure 1: "Untitled" by Margel Hinder, Photo by Lisa Conolly, July 2025
This sculpture sits adjacent the Telstra Exchange building at Waymouth St. Adelaide, installed in 1972. The telecommunications building was completed in about 1970, and the sculpture was chosen by the architect. At the time this was a Commonwealth Government project, but since then Telstra and the building are now privately owned.
Figure 2: Maquette - Copper on wooden base (1971)
A maquette for the sculpture had been exhibited in the Marland House sculpture competition in Melbourne in 1971, and was spotted by the architect for the new telecommunications building in Adelaide who “considered that the encircling elements symbolized Telecom’s transmissions around the world, and so commissioned it”.
The Marland House Competition of 1971 was held at the Age Gallery in Melbourne, where thirty-five sculptors, including Margel Hinder, submitted maquettes (models) for a proposed sculpture to be installed at the Marland House building in Melbourne. The winning entry was from Ken Reinhard later installed at Marland House in 1975.
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Hinder's maquette was the first in a series of works in which Ian Cornford wrote that Margel “consciously and consistently explored her concern for the articulation of space through relationships.” The maquette “consisted of three revolving forms of different proportions and ideas, which the artist tried to relate to each other, and which were intended to be motorized at different speeds.” ​Margel Hinder's maquette sold in 2023 for $184,091 at auction.
Figure 3: The sculpture in 1972
The original positioning of the sculpture had more space around it. The sculpture today is hemmed in with high walls, and a utility box, and there are no longer ground lights to show it off at night, as can be seen in this photo. Today the steel sculpture is rusted in places, and there is no plaque to describe it.
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​The Marland house maquette was the first in a series of works in which Ian Cornford wrote that Margel “consciously and consistently explored her concern fo the articulation of space through relationships.” The maquette “consisted of three revolving forms of different proportions and ideas, which the artist tried to relate to each other, and which were intended to be motorized at different speeds.”
Figure 4: Margel and Frank Hinder at the sculpture site during installation in 1972.
In 1971 Margel Hinder was aged 66 and well established as an important sculptor in Australia. She had completed several major public commissions, including a sculpture for the Reserve Bank in Sydney completed in 1964 which was one of the first large scale purely abstract public artworks in Sydney. She was married to Frank Hinder, also a well known artist in Australia.
FIgure 5: Portrait of Margel Hinder by Frank Hinder. Oil, 1972
Margel Hinder died in 1995, and a major retrospective of her work was held in 2021, “Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion”. It was the first dedicated retrospective to this artist which showed at the NSW Art Gallery, before touring to the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Victoria. Denise Mimmochi, the exhibition creator, described Margel as one of the most important sculptors in Australia, because she changed the way people experience sculpture, bringing light, energy and motion to the experience of her work.
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References
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CORNFORD, Ian (2013), The sculpture of Margel Hinder (Willoughby, New South Wales Enid Hawkins and Philip Matthews Book Publishers).
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Duetscher and Hackett (2025), 'Record of sale of Hinder Maquette, Untitled 1971', <https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/maquette-adelaide-telecommunications-building-1971>, accessed 7 September, 2025.​
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Reserve Bank of Australia Museum, 'Forecourt Sculpture', Public Art<https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/unreservedly-modern/public-art/>, accessed September 10, 2025.
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Melanie Barrett and Lois Waters, 'A World of Ideas in Miniature', (NSW Art Gallery, 2021).
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Figures
Figure 1. "Untitled", by Margel Hinder. 65 Waymouth St, Adelaide. Photograph by Lisa Conolly. July 2025
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Figure 2. Maquette submitted to the Marland sculpture prize, 1971. Beaten copper and copper pipe on wooden base. 120 x 65 x 82 cm. Image sourced from <https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/maquette-adelaide-telecommunications-building-1971>, accessed 7 September.
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Figure 3. Adelaide sculpture 1972 by Margel Hinder in Waymouth Street, Adelaide,1972, Photographer unknown. National Art Archive. Gift of Enid Hawkins. 35mm Slide, ARC322.91.115, © Estate of Margel Hinder,
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/ARC322.91.115/
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Figure 4. Installation of Adelaide sculpture 1972 by Margel Hinder in Waymouth Street, Adelaide with Frank Hinder and Margel Hinder, 1972, Photographer unknown. National Art Archive. Gift of Enid Hawkins. 35mm Slide ARC322.91.129, © Estate of Margel Hinder, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/ARC322.91.129/
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Figure 5. Portrait of Margel Hinder, by Frank Hinder. Oil on hardboard. 94.8 x 70cm. Archibald Prize Entry for 1972
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1972/16535/
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