This is a recent update submitted by John Armstrong – Harbinger Consultants - to art+place regarding the progress of the Artworks at Fitzgibbon Chase, Brisbane.  It fills in some of the gaps from our last post on Fitzgibbon and also has some lovely images (all image credits to John Armstrong) of the Community workshops lead by Andrea Fisher and Britta Gudd.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED ARTWORK AT FITZGIBBON COMMUNITY CENTRE

The Community Centre being constructed at Fitzgibbon is planned to be the focus of the community activities for the new residents of the development as well as the existing residents from the neighbouring area.  The artwork has been designed to involve this community in an inclusive and creative way.

The artwork has two aspects:

Surface design on the central paved access to the Centre - that will be an applied design developed by artist Lucas Salton based on the flight patterns of native bees that will activate the paving and assist in wayfinding to the different facilities of the Centre.  The design motifs will vary in intensity and contrast to create an undulating impression.

The concrete slab has been laid and will be honed within the next few weeks – this will reveal the substrate of coloured aggregate and the surface design will then be abrasive blasted onto this surface – the final layout:

The cells will have bronze metal applied to small sections to create a flow pattern across the entire area.

Sculpture modules in the gardens and softscape at the front of the Centre (street frontage across the road from the planned Commercial and Retail Centre) – a series of domes will be constructed and positioned in clusters of varying sizes and heights.  The domes will have fibre optic lighting included in the top rim to cast a soft glow into the interior of the domes and illuminate the small sculptural installations each dome contains.  At night the domes will emit a soft cone of light upwards and so function as safety and wayfinding aids.  The contents of each dome module has been developed by artists Andrea Fisher and Britta Gudd in community workshops with existing and new community members and neighbours including school children.  Each dome module will contain a different mini-installation and reflect the particular styles of the artists as facilitators in the workshops – Britta with a young, fun and funky approach using brightly coloured modelling media and Andrea with a cut out template based on natural features of the site and a respectful sense of tradition and history of this land.

The workshops have been completed – Andrea worked with the Koobara Kindergarten children as well as the general community members at Fitzgibbon:

…. and many small sculptural units were created for inclusion in the domes:

Britta worked with students from Taigum State School and general community members at Ftizgibbon:

…. with many small sculptural units being created for inclusion in the domes:

The domes are being fabricated now by Lucas Salton – there are 27 in total ranging in height above the softscape from 50cm to 75cm.  Each cast concrete module will have a bronze metal exterior surface which links to the bronze elements in the paving design.

The timeline has been revised because of delays in construction.  Estimated completion of the project is end of the year with anticipated launch early February, 2012