deb and i began this public art commission over a year and a half ago. in the original brief the project was due to be completed in december 2013. we finally completed it in december 2014. we had the art components ready to go but the whole street was being re-landscaped and overhauled and that whole process took much longer than originally anticipated by the council. but we got there in the end and we think it looks pretty good. here is what we did.
there was a lot of salvaged slate that we collected and re-purposed to be included in the footpath. the area has a history as a port, and is still a bit rough in character, so we wanted the materials and imagery to fit with the surroundings
an anchor tattoo imagery seemed appropriate.
we also did a series of slate inclusions that had imagery and poetry.
this runs the length of the footpath in one section for about 15 meters.
it read 'we are all present links in the endless chain of cause and effect'
and then we did a few bold images of chain links
also related to the port history
and the poem
we were lucky to be given access to some old wharf timbers and for these we designed some bright bench seating.
a detail of the bench seat with the artists blurred in the background.
they fit the area really well being robust and having a history of a different use before hand still readable.
there was a long green curved arbour that would have originally had some kind of vine growing on it. the council wanted this to be refreshed, so we took some salvaged timber and painted some high-vis colours onto them and created a bright walkway refresh.
this was some what controversial with some residents as they wanted it to be rain proof, but the council did not want to deal with guttering etc, so we kept it simple.
the view looking up as you walk under it
we also really love the shadow play on the ground from the new structure above.
here is another bench seat in white, again with blurred artists in the background.
we did another collection of artworks in front of the local community center
we had kids from the childcare center do some drawings of the port, and we had these scaled to fit 300 mm x 300 mm pavers that were included in the footpath.
they were very good images to work with.
and finally the council had received feedback from the community during consultation that they wanted to see more colour. since we already had the walkway planned at tone end of the street we thought it would be fun to include colour on the other end of the street at the roundabout.
so we painted some concentric rings of colour like a giant bulls eye at the roundabout to tie it all together and add some colour and fun to the street scape.
other than the timeline changing we had a great time on this project, working very hands on for every part of the artworks. the council has been good to work with and we are happy with the results. and it feels great to have a project that has taken so long to see completed finally done.
on to new things in the new year!
