Rustnstuff

Friday, June 16, 2017

Installation progress

Every day this week, except for Thursday, has seen me on site at Little Yabba Creek doing work on installing the Buttress Root sculpture.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the heaviest days. Tuesday saw the team: excavating foundations - including three 1.5m deep piers; getting steel in place; doing the first pour of concrete into the ground; and installing the wooden post that will become the Poetry Post.

On Wednesday: the formwork went into place; the sculpture was delivered and person-handled into position; more reinforcing steel was tied in so the the sculpture was and was to be bonded to the base layer poured on Tuesday; concrete was poured; and river stones added to the wet concrete.

The work was then left to cure for a couple of days. Two of us went back today to remediate the site and do the first clean of the sculpture- but I will leave that for another day.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Phone fragments and moon moods

I guess we are all guilty of taking 'interesting' photos with our iPhone only to have them sit in the camera roll. Below are a few that have sat on my phone.

On Monday morning, very early and still dark, Fiona pointed out this moody moon as she headed out the door to join her women's exercise group. Between doing my exercise and other chores I caught a few images of the moon.

Today has been a longish and hard day - we finished the concreting of the Buttress Root sculpture into place at Little Yabba Creek. I will images of that in Friday's post.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Big timbers

The installation of the large Buttress Root sculpture is scheduled, weather permitting, for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. A lot of planning and coordinating has gone into it given there are many organisations and workers doing different technical tasks.

In addition to sculpture we will also be installing a large timber PoetryPost - the four faces of which will be used to carry the full versions of poems on the Buttress Root and also a story and acknowledgement sign. Each of the poems and sign will be on A4 sized stainless steel sheets. The post will be capped with a stainless steel cover.

I had three large (25cm square and just over 2m long) timber hard wood (Spotted Gum) posts cut from salvaged wood and delivered quite some time ago. Over the weekend I sanded and coated one of the posts in readiness for pick up on Tuesday morning. The timber is a beautiful reddish-brown colour.

One of the challenges with such big pieces of timber is that unless they have been kiln dried they do tend to split after milling.As the fist photo and the one below show I had to fill some cracks with timber epoxy filler.

I could not resist taking a photo of the rusty cast-iron wheel sitting on the eroded end of the post below. The cast-iron wheel is used to secure the covering for timber.

Blogs latter next week might reveal the installed sculpture.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Images from Seasons

Whilst in Melbourne recently Fiona and I grabbed an hour to briefly check out the Vangogh exhibition Seasons at NGV. I was amazed that we were allowed to take photos of the works - with out flash of course. I share a few fragments from the exhibition.

The works in this post simply share the brilliance of a man who produced so much art (900 paintings); and I believe sold one painting during his life. It reinforces the old saying for many of us artists - don't give up your day job.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

A five post sculpture

I have done the design work for a commissioned five post sculpture that will be installed into a longish and narrow space surrounded by high walls. The area creates an intimate gravelled courtyard. The installation is to feature snake and water motifs. It needs to be able to be viewed from three points: through a floor to ceiling windows in the back of the courtyard; a bathroom; and the entry from the outside garden area. So the motifs need to be on at least three faces of the posts.

The sketched design is in the photo below. The posts will be salvaged hardwood milled by a local contact; and be about 17cm square and range in height from 1.25m-1.75m. The motifs will be etched into aluminium using a non-acid etching process. The etched panels will be 13cm wide and 39cm long. The sketches of the motifs were done on grey-board cut to size (13cmX39cm).

I met with the owner on Friday and the designs have been signed off.Work will most likely start in late June.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Beautiful lines

As some would know I'm working on a large public sculpture (Buttress Root) that will include poetry by local poets routed into the metal. Three steps in the fabrication process have been completed: cutting large thick sheets of aluminium; routing the words into the flat sheets; and having the sheets rolled into the shapes for final welding and polishing.

Yesterday I went to FreeForm Sheet Metal's workshop to discuss some refinements and welding points. I was pleased how the design is being given life through the hands of various metal workers. Photos below speak for themselves.

©2017 Fiona Dempster - Excerpts from poems that have been routed into what is now the rolled inside of the trunk section of the root - the font here is 2cm so that we could fit more poetry into the space.

©2017 Fiona Dempster - This photo gives an idea of scale and lines of the sculpture - the root will be set 10cm into a concrete base surrounded by river stones impeded into the concrete; and the trunk will be set an additional 10cm into the concrete.

The plan is that the sculpture will be finished on Monday (5 June) afternoon; and ready for inspection by the poets and the Sunshine Coast Council folk. Then, hopefully, we are ready to start the installation which will take place over three days in mid June. Buttress Root is to be installed in the landscape - on a flat section of ground between a picnic area and Little Yabba Creek. Very exciting; but also bit nerve wracking.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Water on glass, moss nest and other fragments

This Wednesday iPhoneographic post is a mixed bag of fragments that flitted through my week and eye. Whilst in Melbourne Fiona and I got too have a quick viewing of the Vangogh exhibition (Seasons). On the way out I was taken by the way the fading daylight and some uplights were enhancing the film of water that was running down the glass wall (a water feature).

One of the benefits of autumn is that the birds nests in the maple trees on our terraces make an appearance. I love this delicately woven lichen nest - about the size of a large egg.

I'm surprised at just how much bee activity there still is as we move into winter (tomorrow).

The resilience of nature as this orchid makes a comeback after being totally eaten down by a possum; and the crucifix orchids that continue to bloom.

One of our local artists, Leeza Stratford, did a great job initiating and coordinating a beautiful participatory community art installation called Unity. The public was given the opportunity to weave the thread of themselves by choosing descriptions at each of the 32 posts. The woven result demonstrated the many characteristics we share; and that as humans we are not so different. I share here a couple of images of the threads against a blue sky.