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.

bike track public art commission

deb and i have been working on this commission for about 6 months now. we were approached by the council to come up with an artwork for along a bike path.

 

we decided to utilise the fence alongside the bike path and attach some custom made art signs to it.

 

we made some smaller panels with parts off a bike on them.

  

they are scattered along the bike path

and lead you up to the weather vane we made.

the weather vane is made up of a custom made metal cone that is counterbalanced by a set of bicycle forks and a bike wheel. it spins in the wind, and is set in a zig in the bike path.

the large panels create a segmented image of a bike or two. they are made using sign writers vinyl on the powder coated metal signs.

 

installation was pretty easy. we riveted these signs to the fence using brackets around the fence verticals.

we think the finished job looks pretty good.

 

overall its not a deep concept, just some bright safety colour and imagery of bikes along the bike path, with a spinning element.

 

i will post some professional images once we have them. might need to wait for spring sunshine.

public art commission finally complete!

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!

public artowrks installed in the foot path

last week we finally got to see some of our sandblasted slate imagery and the large boat image that we cut into the paver installed into the walkway in port adelaide.

the pavers were delivered numbered and in order on a pallet.

 

the site was leveled and prepped by the paver installers

and then they got to work laying out the large ship image into the paving on the footpath.

it didnt take very long for the whole thing to be laid out

 

i still need to go back and take some final images, it is almost impossible to see the artwork in these images

on the other side of the street the artworks had already been installed and people are already walking on them and enjoying them or hating them. thats the thing with public artworks people have no problem letting you know what they really think, even if it is bad.

 

here are the close ups of the artwork that runs along the foot path 

 

 

in case you cant read it it says "we are present link in the endless chain of cause and effect"

and then after you walk over that text there are some large chain links along the footpath.

 

they look really great installed, but it is funny, since they fit in so well they are really flat, and you cant see the amount of material and volume that each piece actually takes up.

 

this is a large piece of slate, with a picture of an anchor on it and some text from a song lyric 'i tattooed an anchor next to your name so i wouldn't float away'

again i need to go back and get some good images, but these were just the quick snaps i took the other day when we were on site. there are a few more bits to get installed on this job and a bit of line marking we still have to do but hopefully it will be done end of this month mid next month at the latest.