Client: Department of Education

Overview

Interactive artwork depicting school mascot. Used as a meet and
greet area and seating for the students.
Lockridge Primary School
4.8m x 2.4m x 3m
Completed 2010
Commissioned by Building Management and Works
Painted aluminum and galvanized steel with concrete seat.

Goals

The staff and students of Lockridge Primary School are proud that the land on which the school sits was once farmland owned by the prominent local Hammersley family. So much so that their family crest, the mythical Gryphon, is now the school crest.
With its lion’s body, bird’s head, and wings, the Gryphon is a marvellous starting point for an artist’s vivid imagination to take off. The wings on Tony Pankiw’s giant metal Gryphon form a shelter from the sun while the tail, positioned under the wing, is a seat. The sculpture is made from galvanized steel, aluminium and concrete, with the surrounding area laid with rubber for safety. The two metals contrast. The galvanized steel has a facetted, grainy surface, while the new aluminium gives the wings the ‘high tech’ look of an aircraft. The concrete plinth enhances the Gryphon’s aura of stateliness.

Process

Diverting from the Gryphon, each teaching block has been given the Nyoongar name for a local tree. A laser cut aluminium, metal relief tree with the name at the base, sits on each building. Tony ran special workshops with the students so their delightful drawings could be transcribed into design elements that sit on either side of each tree. Kwela (sheoak) has river creatures; Moodja (Christmas tree) has flying creatures; and Baroo (grass tree) has land creatures, all imagined or remembered by the students.