FUNCTIONAL PUBLIC ART FACADES

This artwork comprises of aluminium fins to the south and east facades of Bob Hawke College which appears to open up and incrementally reveal views to the outside. The building is sited partly on the former Subiaco Oval site; the former Western Australian home of AFL and is adjacent to Mueller Park. This site bears significant community sporting memories and connection to the pre-colonial landscape evidenced in the mature Melaleucas (Paperbarks) close by and the scarred tree at Mueller Park.

The artwork aims to connect landscape, community memory, and users. Incorporating a perforated pattern capturing textures from the site and words anamorphically positioned over several fins, the creates elements to be discovered over time. The words such as land, mark, rise, and seasons echo both football terminology and the Aboriginal cultural significance of the site.

The incrementally opening fins are both reminiscent of the peeling bark of the Melaleuca and the pages of a book, celebrating the site’s natural features while acknowledging its future as a place of learning.  Layered, complex and peeling open, the fins can be viewed as a metaphor for knowledge generation, that is, the stripping back of the superficial to investigate deeper and gain knowledge or the layering and complexity of knowledge.

More about the commissioned work for Bob Hawke College.