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Peak Apartments Entrance Sculptures


A Developer's Percent for Public Art Project

Artists Concept

A) ‘Swan Earth Song’ - Featured Sculpture on External Wall of Peak Apartments

 

Design Concept: Brief

To create a design with public relevance and symbolism which would relate to the general citizenry, visitors and the residents of 229 Adelaide Terrace. A concept based on a centrally significant local feature was decided on: the Swan River.

 

CONCEPT THEME:

This bas relief artwork takes its inspiration from the concept of the ‘place’ in time Essentially it is a visualization of the pristine bedrock, of what is technically, one of  the most ancient landforms on Earth. The very existence of the city of Perth, depends on the water catchments of this most unique fossil Pre-Cambrian landscape. It is also located on the deepest and oldest geological fault line on earth.

The artwork uses an intense 3-D relief graphic articulation to express the myriad eons of the slow accretion of layers, which through their interwoven complexity captures a visual metaphor of this endless geological topography.

The intensity of surface tension will be further enhanced by treating the synthetic rock-like material with a palette of oxides, carefully mixed to accentuate the visual sense and ‘feel’ of this truly, amazing pre-historic place.

This bas relief mural represents, metaphorically, what lies beneath our feet, while the visual experience is further enhanced by the startling slash of hi-tech mirror-polished stainless steel ‘Swan River’ motif; surely, itself one of the oldest rivers on Earth.

This artwork then, is a visual celebration of where we really live and a reminder of how fleeting our history really is. If the entire history of the city of Perth were visualized as a fluttering moth, it would flicker briefly, for a millisecond across this timeless landscape and hardly register at all.

 

B) Entrance Gateway to Peak Apartments

 

The Entrance Gateway to Peak Apartments was development in order to enhance and extend the Artwork Motif across the front elevation on the building.

This presented a wonderful opportunity to include the concept of ‘ The Gateway ‘ itself as a metaphor for the ‘ journey ‘ or ‘ passage ‘ through which humans have moved and will continue to move through this ancient, altered streetscape.

The design is simply based upon the graphic interaction of sun on water, visually reinforcing the basic interplay of natural elements underlying the overall theme of the Artwork, generally.

The Gate itself thus becomes an interactive urban artwork in which the people entering and leaving through it become part of the intrinsic underlying metaphor.

 


 

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