Rustnstuff: Placemaking art

Showing posts with label Placemaking art. Show all posts

Friday, May 1, 2020

Revisiting Peace in the Trees

Recently Fiona and I decided to take a walk along the path in Maleny precint. Over four years ago the Peace in the Trees Sculptural Walk was opened. At the time the the 12 sandstone monoliths were cemented securely into the ground and had very little plant and tree growth around them.

These days you need to look a bit more closely to find the sculptures amidst the trees and Lomandras. Fiona and I decided to return to the walk and begin to do a bit of maintenance to enable the walk and the pieces to be enjoyed a little more.

My piece on peace is the first sculpture at the town and of the walk. I have been told it is a favourite with dogs, Looking at the base of the sculpture I think that could be true - all the soil and gravel has been raked away by dogs.

Fiona and I decided to carry a couple of buckets of gravel and to restore the area around the base.

We also took out battery operated hedger to cut back the lomandras that had hidden a couple of the sculptures, like Kim's Solace, so that they can be seen again.

There is still work to be done - over the next couple of months we or other artist might give the sculptures a truce up.

I thought I'd share a recent photo of our peace book sculpture - still making a strong statement.

Friday, December 15, 2017

In the landscape

The blog is about two very different sculptures: the organ installation on the block; and the Buttress Root sculpture at Little Yabba Creek (LYC).

First the Buttress Root Sculpture. This morning I went to LYC to give the sculpture a clean and the poetry post a paint. Why? The sculpture is being officially opened tomorrow (Saturday). There is to be a community event (11.30am-1.30pm) that celebrates the Pente Poets poetry and the poetry trail, the sculpture, the local history and the place. It will include talks of course; but also sausage sizzle, face-painting, music etc.

The sculpture has settled into the landscape - the grass has all but covered all the bare earth around it. It looks like it belongs there. When I was giving it a clean a woman walking her dog came up to me and thanked me for design of the sculpture - she said how beautiful it was and how uplifting it was to have it sitting out there by the creek. Couple more photos of Buttress Root.

About 3 years ago I brought a electric organ to save it going to the tip. I thought it would be interesting to install it out in the open on the block between the mango trees and watch the process as it returned to the earth.

Well the process has progressed to the stage that the timber frame collapsed so the organ keyboard etc are now snuggled amongst the grass and weeds - closer to the earth. It has a real beauty as it gradually and quietly returns to mulch and earth.

I started a couple of pendants today - I hope to complete at least one over the weekend.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

On the wall

I was planning to make and post on an Artisan Lamp - made using one of the ceramic and metal light fittings from Krakow; but as I'm still feeling a little under the weather I decided instead to sort some photos from the trip and post on those.

Photos always seem to fall into categories - so I thought I'd post on bits and pieces that appeared on walls in Krakow

I like the weathered and even overwritten nature of some of the wall images - layers of life and layers of messages!!!

Friday, June 30, 2017

Completion can take time

I spent most of today at Little Yabba Creek putting finishing touches to the sculpture and post. The sculpture was inspected yesterday and passed muster except that I need to seal the concrete it was set in.

The post was not due for inspection until I had installed the stainless steel cap and attached the four signs as I had not finished the work on it - including filling surface cracks and giving it another couple of coats of timber finish. But it was inspected anyway; and suggestions were made regarding improvements.

So I sanded the post, filled the surface cracks, gave it two more coats of Ultradeck finish; and also installed the cap. The cap was glued to the top of the post with the equivalent of a full large tube of silicon sealant-glue.

During my work there I had about about 10 visitors. Quite a lot of question regarding the work and lots of praise for the poetry and sculpture.

The sculpture and post looked great as the sun was going down as I left the site.

I think a wine will be well deserved tonight.

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.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Art at your feet

©2015 Barry Smith - This has nothing to do with the brass and mosaic pieces - but I loved the colour and concept. A bass speaker and paint as part of a interactive piece of art in a Umbrella Gallery in Townsville

As readers will know from an earlier blog post Fiona and I did a sculpture walk when we were in Townsville a few wells ago. I showed a few of the standing 3D sculptures.

However I was also taken by the use of brass and mosaic tiles to create 2D art works in the concrete pathway. Each piece told a placemaking story - moving from Indigenous ownership and settlement of the place to white settlement.

Though the stories we worth reading I thought I would just share a few images here so to show the lovely weathering of the brass, the texture and the mosaic.