Despite a healthy crowd on opening day, organisers of the annual Sculpture By the Sea exhibition are facing a "nervous" period as they seek sponsorship dollars to keep the event afloat.
It's the 11th time the popular event has been held at Cottesloe Beach, but at Friday's launch founding director David Handley expressed doubts about its future.
"If the sponsorship situation stayed the same for Sculpture By the Sea much longer, we would have real difficulty in presenting this exhibition here," he said.
"When I say much longer, I don't want to put a year on it because we keep pulling rabbits out of a hat.
"If a company didn't know where 40 per cent of its revenue was coming from and they were a $2 million turnover organisation, they'd be pretty nervous. "
Billionaire Gina Rinehart injected much-needed funds to ensure last year's event could go ahead, but did not do so this year.
"[Hancock Prospecting] were very generous supporters last year. It was a one year agreement, only ever a one year agreement," Mr Handley said.
"Of course, we would have loved them to stay on but there was no question whatsoever they pulled out. It was a sponsorship that happened, but didn't continue, and that's very often what happens."
On Friday, Arts Minister John Day announced the state government has committed to support the event for a further three years, but declined to specify how much that support was worth citing "commercial confidence".
Aluminium producer Alcoa has sponsored the event for a number of years and Mr Day urged other companies to follow suit.
"Governments can't do everything in relation to assisting events like these. We do need the corporate sector and well-off individuals in the state to provide their support," he said.
"For a lot of large companies, it only needs to be fairly modest compared to their overall revenue."
The founding director seemed hopeful a resolution could be found, despite a "tight" corporate sponsorship market.
"Sponsorship isn't philanthropy. Sponsorship is a business decision and we'd like to think that with all the media that Sculpture By the Sea gets that there are real business merits in sponsoring this exhibition," Mr Handley said.
"Maybe this year someone's going to turn up and say 'wow, I'm going to be seen as the white night'. That could happen tomorrow, or sculpture sales might go fantastically well and we might be rescued there."
Among those who did turn up to see the 70 striking pieces on display were serious buyers looking to acquire unique artistic works.
"People from all over the world who are interested in sculpture have their eyes on Cottesloe," Mr Handley said.
"Even the owner of Canberra Airport has flown in. He's developing one of the major corporate sculpture collections in Australia and he's come in to consider what he might purchase."
Getting the sculptures over to Perth and onto the site was not a cheap exercise – Mr Handley said much of that cost was borne by the artists themselves.
"The materials and the cost of getting the sculptures here and into the ground are really almost like an artist's drug. They're addicted to this and they carry those costs themselves," he said.
"There's probably around half a million dollars worth of unfunded work on the beach."
This year's event boasts pieces from local, national and international artists which have been installed along the road side, in the sand and even in the water.
"[We have] the first fully submerged, or should I say, the first intentionally submerged sculpture in Sculpture By the Sea," Mr Handley said.
The Arts Minister said he was drawn to a piece by local artist Paul Stanwick-Wright.
"I'm particularly attracted to the innovation in the use of the old sea container, the fact that it represents a human face and is representative of the historic figures on Easter Island," he said.
The most expensive of the works listed in the official program are giant babies by Czech artist David Cerny, which are valued at $140,000 each.
The faceless figures, made of metalised fibreglass and steel, have drawn comparisons to last year's fan favourite – the goon bag.
"Last year, we thought that the goon bag had done it all. In this year, which I think Perth is going to claim as 'The Year of the Giants', we have giant babies. They're stunning and we love them," Cottesloe mayor Jo Dawkins said.
"By world standards, Cottesloe is actually quite a small intimate beach and we love the fact that the sculptures are probably more accessible here than in some other areas."
The creator of the goon bag, which was officially titled Bulk Carrier, entered another piece into the 2015 exhibition with great result.
Norton Flavel was jointly awarded the WA Sculptor's Scholarship, worth $10,000, with fellow West Australian Kim Perrier.
Mr Flavel's piece Lucky Country has already earned a nickname – the ball and chain.
"All my work is a bit about identity and I guess I want to connect with people as well. For me, its a recurring theme, an Australian way of dealing with things," he said.
"The work hard, play hard [mentality], there's a bit of that. You can look up and see something different when you look down, that's about our life as well."
As for the goon bag, Mr Flavel said it hadn't been forgotten.
"I had a friend who suggested I blow up the goon bag and next to [the Diver Giant] at the train station just to put it into context," he laughed.
"I'm used to getting 20 people through a gallery over two weeks or something... so to get massive publicity and all that sort of stuff, you don't expect it."
Sculpture By the Sea will run at Cottesloe Beach until 23 March.
