For the second year in a row, Structerre has sponsored the artwork of Mt Lawley artist, Norton Flavel, for his entry in the ‘Sculpture by the Sea’ exhibition on Cottesloe Beach, WA. Although artistic engineering is not a daily routine for Structerre, we provided Flavel with innovative engineering solutions to make his vision become a reality and proved again our ability to ‘think outside the box’.
The artwork, dubbed ‘The Lucky Country’, is inspired by Australia’s convict past and present prosperity. “We have this sense of play as a nation and this sense of achievement but we also have this underlying history of convicts and that practical, hard, battler-type history,” Flavel said.
The artwork is a 4m-high beach ball and chain created from a mixture of materials, including inflated stainless steel. The combination of height, weight and aesthetics of the mainly steel structure required some inventive engineering. “Structerre was willing to take on this unconventional job, which is exactly what I needed”, Flavel said.
Both a jury of visual art experts and the Town of Cottesloe recognised Flavel’s talent, announcing him as one of two winners of this year’s $10 000 Western Australian Sculptor Scholarship. The scholarship for travel, study and the advancement of the artist’s career includes an invitation to exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi this October. The Town of Cottesloe has since acquired ‘The Lucky Country’ sculpture to be publicly installed for the local community to enjoy.
An estimated 220,000 people visited this year’s free exhibition on Cottesloe beach which featured contributions from 70 international, interstate and local artists.
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