Client: Bottleyard Apartments

Overview

A canopy of historic glass and light. The site where the Bottleyard apartments are built used to be a brewery and bottle recycling facility in Perth’s early days and the idea for the artwork was to use this heritage to create an immersive experience for residents and visitors as they move in and out of the site. Site excavations unearthed many intact bottles of all shapes, sizes, colours and purposes and much more broken shards – which I categorized into colours to create the canopy. The cast resin panels are angled to catch the northerly light and produce a mottled texture of colour within the space below – so people have the colours of the past projected on their bodies – inviting them to reflect on the site’s history. At night the canopy glows with shimmering waves of white light (so as not to compromise the colour of the glass) which react to the energy of the site throughout the night hours.

Goals

The real goal was to honour the uniqueness of the material in a way that connects the site to it's past, and also produces an immersive sensory experience for the viewer.

Process

Approximately 200kg of broken glass was shipped from Perth to my studio in Melbourne where it was sorted into colour groupings and cleaned fastidiously for resin casting. A custom curing oven had to be built to fit the large cast panels, which also contained a sheet of toughened glass, to prevent any slumping in the heat of the daytime Perth sun. The frame was designed by Studio JT to hold the panels at a northerly angle - taking advantage of the sun and fit the integrated lighting. This was all produced in Melbourne and shipped to Perth for the installation on site.