adoption memorial

a couple months ago deb and i began a new public art commission. its is a commemorative public art memorial for past forced adoption. we were working with relationships australia in consultation with a local community group who have been affected by forced adoption practises. needless to say it was a very serious, and troubling topic. we met many lovely people during the process and heard many sad and incredible personal stories along the way.

for such a serious subject we approached the design of the memorial to be one with some substance and weight to it, literally.

we began making trip 2 hours north to a local quarry to find the right bit of black granite for the job.

this was way back at the beginning of the year, and we would be driving up to the dry quarry in the heat of the day, and walking around looking for the perfect stone.

we made quite a few trips, looking for the right one.

 

this one was on hold for us for a bit, but it wasnt quite right

 we got to know the guys working at the quarry and they got to know what we were looking for in a rock.

one day we got he call to come up to the quarry, they thought they found the rock we were looking for. this is deb checking out the rock while it was still in the pit, looking at the natural break in the stone. exactly what we were after.

here is the beautiful stone after it was brought up from the quarry, with a lovely natural front face. the concept for the artwork was simple, to take a solid bit of rack and crack it into 2 pieces, force-ably separating the 2 bits that had been together for thousands of years.

 

to separate the stone we needed to control the break, so it broke as we wanted it to. to do this we had the quarry drill a line of vertical holes along the point we wanted it to break.

then some metal wedge shaped things plugs called feathers were put into the holes and gently tapped into the rock. as the wedge went further into the rock the pressure causes it to crack.

 

it happens slowly and you can hear the rock cracking as it goes.

 

the rock now in 2 pieces.

 

from here we had some more work to do on the rock. we ended up working a couple sides of the rock. 2 sides we kept looking natural and just exfoliated the surface a bit more using heat.

the third side we wanted to polish so we had it wire cut and the began polishing it by hand .

 

you can see in this photo the rock in 2 pieces at the stone memorial place where we hired some space for this project.

 

then deb and myself spent over a week in front of this rock grinding the surface. the whole surface is marked up in yellow and then you grind it off (so yo know what areas you have done)

we kept grinding and grinding.

 

these are the diamond pads we used going from 50 grit up to 3000 grit.

 

this is the 300 finish. we were so proud of ourselves for getting to this point.

then one of the stone workers came and did the next step which was polishing using a compressed pad of camel hair and a polishing agent.

 

this really made the surface shine and is what the industry calls "sealing the rock"

 

it was a nice last step on the side face

now you could see your reflection in the rock! so much better than we imagined.

 

deb and myself at the end of the polishing, happy as

 

the last thing to do was engrave a sentence that explains the memorial onto the polished surface. now it is ready for install.

installation phase next time

arty fencing

Deb and I recently started a commission for some arty fencing in a new park being built. this job came about in a bit of an unusual way, the artist lined up for the job originally was unable to it. we have worked with this council before and they contacted us to see if we would be able and interested to do this, the only catch they needed it before the end of financial year (tomorrow). we said ok, and after some design work and meetings have come up with some arty fencing that will be installed tomorrow (yes - just on time)

this is deb on a site visit. we are creating 3 m long panels that curve

 

here are the prepped and painted reclaimed timber fence posts that have been installed on site already.

we are using anodized perforated aluminium sheeting for the fence panels.

we have used this before and like how we can still apply an image to the panels but the perforations mean the image is not so flat

we spent some time drawing and creating some images and once approved we then had them blown up to scale and cut out of some sign writers vinyl.

you apply an application layer of tape over the top and then lay it on the perforated sheet, then take off the top layer of tape as deb is doing in the photo above.

 

then the fun part, spray painting!!

we managed to get a nice colour fade here

 

with stencil waiting for paint to dry

 

stencil removed, paint dry

 

spray painting third panel

removing the stencil

 

finished product

stencil on ready to paint.

stencil with wet paint

stencil gone paint dry

 

as i said we install these tomorrow - final photos to come. lets hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow. oh yeah also the theme of the park is butterfly, so we had to design with that in mind. not our favorite subject matter but i think the arty fence panels look pretty good.

terrazzo and excuses

ok - i know it has been a while. life just got a bit too busy. too much happening. but i have still been documenting it, just not having any time to post things here. I will attempt to catch up over the next couple weeks. that was the excuse.

first to what i am doing now. here is the terrazzo.

 deb and i were successful in securing a public art job for the city council. we designed a tree image that will be made from brass lines set in terrazzo. this will be set along the foot path in front of the city council building.

we started by creating a template that is to scale for us to draw the pattern out on

 

we drew the tree pattern onto the template

then we used this to bend and lay out the brass strips to make up the drawing.

as we often do when working on a public art project, we have partnered up with a local fabricator who works with concrete and terrazzo all the time. he is helping us source materials, create the concrete colours and mixes and install the terrazzo.

in the meantime we have been busy writing safe work method statements, getting work permits, and planning and coordinating all the background prep stuff to get this job started. The base concrete slab was poured last week. Now we just need a few sunny days in a row so we can begin to layout the brass pattern and then start the coloured aggregates. 

watch this space for more updates soon.

newst pieces

there are a few art competitions deadlines coming up, and this is a great motivator to get some artwork that has been in the works for a while.

this piece is made to fit on a backing board that i had a friend make for me. i have had it for a while but have finally decided to use it, and i am really liking it.

 

this is a collection of small squares that i have been working on that are part of a new series about exploring my local area.

 

and these are the photos from the photographers. i went to a new person to get my work shot. i like the results, a bit of drama in the lighting but i think it works. and i never would have thought about shooting black on black work, on a black background but it seems to work.

this is the final image of the favourite 4 smaller squares, again drama in the lighting and a black background.

 

i also got this piece re shot at the photographers, to see who it went with mirror, and again i like the result. although it does not look like mirror, it does give the same feel as how the piece looks at times when you live with it, as it changes all the time in the light and as you move around it.

so now is the waiting game to see if i am successful and shortlisted for any of the art prizes. and if not i have at least made some new work and some new discoveries in photography of the work.