Tag: public art

Public Art Masterplan Consultation

The City acknowledges the important role played by public art in creating a vibrant and appealing place to live, work and visit. Public art shapes and develops a sense of community and identity, contributing to our understanding and appreciation of our cultural and natural heritage, enhancing our built environment, and creating more meaningful public spaces. The City’s Public Art collection has been acquired since 1998 and includes over 20 artworks.

Setting the Vision for New Public Art

The City is currently undertaking consultation to develop a new Public Art Strategy and Masterplan.

This Masterplan will define the vision for Public Art in the City and help guide resources and funding towards future projects. Such projects aim to enhance the City’s significant Indigenous sites, built environment, distinctive natural assets, historic locations and key destinations. The Masterplan will also provide a guiding framework for all new commissions, ensuring that Joondalup’s Public Art collection creates a sense of place, promotes the expression of local identity, and reflects on the shared values and needs of the community.

Community Consultation Surveys and Workshops

The City sought community feedback in August 2023 to set the direction for the Public Art Masterplan. The survey received phenomenally high engagement, with more than 200 responses received. The results of the survey are currently being collated, along with findings from various community workshops and pop-ups.

Further information and next steps for the Public Art Masterplan will be shared shortly. To stay in the loop, subscribe to the City’s Arts in Focus eNewsletter.

Banner image: Bridget Norton, Untitled, 2009, digital print on acrylic. Craigie Leisure Centre, Craigie. 

Mural project with Sioux Tempestt

The Whitford Library foyer is being transformed by artist in residence, Sioux Tempestt. Sioux creates abstract, mural, sculptural and digital art and several of her large-scale murals can be found throughout Perth.

Community workshops were held with seniors, schools and children throughout June to develop concepts for the mural. In the next phase of the project, Sue will set up her workshop as Artist in Residence in the Whitford Library meeting room from Monday 27 June to Tuesday 21July.

About Sioux Tempestt

Transcending creative disciplines Sioux creates abstract, mural, sculptural and digital art which meaningfully contributes to its context. Her work aims to create a narrative and connection as Sioux believes art plays an intrinsic contribution to our wellbeing, health, and happiness – more so now than ever.

Sioux is passionate about working with the community – young people in particular, mentoring and facilitating creative workshops for local governments and schools. She constantly pushes the boundaries of her practice to communicate and share her tremendous positivity and energy for life.

Large scale murals form part of Sioux’s practice and you’ll find several painted throughout Perth. Among other clients, Sioux has produced artistic projects for Curtin University, the City of Perth, the City of Melville, the City of Stirling, the City of South Perth, the City of Vincent, the Town of Victoria Park, the City of Subiaco, the Town of Claremont, Coles, Dale Alcock and Hawaiian.

Sioux has delivered 10 solo exhibitions and exhibited in numerous group shows. Among other achievements Sioux’s ‘Dirty Beats’ music video is an official selection of the 2022 Revelation Perth International Film Festival. Sioux received a Highly Commended, City of Bayswater Art Award, 2021; was a Finalist, City of Busselton Art Award, 2021; Finalist, Perth Royal Art Prize, 2019; Finalist, City of Rockingham Castaways Sculpture Awards, 2019; Finalist, Minnawarra Art Awards, 2021; Finalist, Town of Claremont Art Awards, 2021; Highly Commended, City of South Perth Emerging Artist Award 2018; Highly Commended, Town of Bassendean Visual Art Award 2018; Finalist, City of Joondalup 2018 Community Invitation Art Award.

Sioux is curator of the Darlington Arts Festival Sculpture on the Scarp 2022. Her work is held in public and private collections.

 

This project was made possible with assistance of DLGSCI and Lotterywest.

About City libraries

The City of Joondalup Libraries are one of the largest and busiest public library services in Western Australia with a range of items available to borrow, events to attend and facilities to enjoy. Our libraries aim to provide a safe and welcoming space and we ask that all visitors conduct themselves in a way that is respectful of place, property and people.

The City has four libraries – Duncraig, Joondalup, Whitford and Woodvale – including a specialist reference and local history collection within the Joondalup Library.

The City’s libraries have opportunities for all ages and lifestyles and offer the following:

The library spaces are available to all residents, tourists, families and businesses to enjoy without membership. Please note that the City’s libraries charge for some programs, meeting spaces and overdue fines.

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Publications and merchandise

While the City’s libraries offer a predominantly free service, merchandise items and printing/copying services have a small charge.

Watch a video

Joondalup: A Pictorial history

From Duncraig in the South to Burns Beach in the North and everywhere in between: come on a journey of discovery as history and modern-day merge into a visually engaging collage sourced from the City of Joondalup Libraries, Local History collection, created by local visual artist Roly Skender, and projected onto the southern windows of Joondalup Library for Kaleidoscope 2018.

Creation of Sioux Tempestt’s mural at the Whitford Library

The Whitford Library’s foyer and external entrance walls have been transformed by Perth artist Sioux Tempestt.
Inspired by the stories of local residents, the intent of the imagery and colour palette is to highlight the uniqueness and beauty of Joondalup and its diverse community, in particular the coastal areas around Hillarys, and their influence on the lives of residents past and present. Sioux also incorporated photographs from the City’s Local History collection in the design. 

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Inside-Out Billboard Project

Image: Still Life on my Studio Table, 2023, by Katie Gordon. Artwork photo by FoxLab Fine Art. Installation photo by Aaron Claringbold.

The Inside-Out Billboard Project is a commission program for West Australian visual artists to create a large outdoor billboard at Joondalup Library and Joondalup Courthouse. The project offers artists an opportunity to play with scale and site, and consider how their practice may translate into a large-scale digital print in the public realm.

Artists are invited to the commission by exhibiting in one of the City’s annual art awards, the Community Art Exhibition (held in June) and the Invitation Art Prize (held in October).

The Inside Out Billboard Project aims to add vibrancy to the City Centre, providing a chance for the community to discover new artworks by West Australian artists.

The latest artworks on display are: Still Life on my Studio Table, 2023, by Katie Gordon at the Joondalup Library; and Lake Joondalup, 2021 by Naomi Grant at the Joondalup Courthouse.

New Commission at Joondalup Library

Image: Still Life on my Studio Table, 2023, by Katie Gordon. Artwork photo by FoxLab Fine Art.

Katie Gordon’s artworks aim to elevate the everyday, and her latest work Still Life on my Studio Table takes the intimate, small and familiar – in this case the items bathed in light on her studio table – and places them into the context of the exposed, large and foreign – the 6 x 3 metre billboard outside Joondalup Library.

Gordon’s subject is a quotidian moment of serenity – a shell, a vase, and a banksia branch. It is one that could easily be overlooked, and yet is soothing in its simplicity and familiarity. Each item of ordinary beauty is rendered in warm tones that reflect the surrounding Joondalup buildings and bushland. Bathed in balmy sunshine filtering through the window blinds, and casting long and striking shadows, the scene offers a meditative moment for a public busily engaged in their daily lives.

Gordon began this artwork by arranging a photographic composition, utilizing light and shadow as a key element of the design. After a selection and editing process, she then started a drawing process to translate the photograph. Key outlines of the design were drawn onto plywood and etched out using a powered rotary instrument, before larger infill areas of shadow were hand-carved away using linoleum cutting tools. The result is a form of relief carving that provides subtle depth to the artwork and further exposes the texture of the wood grain. Gordon completed the work with a painted layer via an interpretative process, rather than holding fast to the reality of the photograph.

The presented work at the Inside-Out Billboard site is a digital print of Gordon’s original acrylic painting on carved wood. In considering the billboard site she says, “I have chosen to create an image that is dynamic and easily recognizable, and able to be understood and appreciated quickly in passing. My intention is for the billboard to be visually soothing by conveying a fleeting moment of stillness and serenity amidst the busyness of the everyday.”

In this subtle way, Still Life on my Studio Table is an anti-hype invitation to simply notice the significance of the present. Regardless of how mundane, Gordon asks viewers to look at the old in new ways, with heightened sensitivity that life is here, right now, and not elsewhere.

Gordon has created this 18th Inside-Out Billboard commission, which was awarded through the 2023 Community Art Exhibition, and will be on display from Saturday 17 February 2024 – Saturday 22 February 2025.

About the Artist

Born in 1989, Katie Gordon spent her formative years living in Zimbabwe, before immigrating to Perth in 2001. Her dual strengths in both art and math, saw Katie study theatre design at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, before going on to graduate with a Bachelor of Business from Edith Cowan University in 2012.

Following 3 years working as an accountant, Katie began creating art in earnest again in 2016. Working mostly in coloured pencil and depicting flowers from her garden in hyper-realistic detail, Katie began to exhibit and sell her work locally. Alongside her art practice, Katie worked as gallery coordinator at the Joondalup Art Gallery before the birth of her son in late 2018.

Recently, the subject matter of Katie’s work has expanded to include portraits and landscapes alongside still-life and interior depictions of her immediate home environment. Katie particularly enjoys juxtaposing natural and human-made objects of familiar beauty into visually dynamic arrangements. She photographs these from varying angles to capture fleeting shadows as a key element of the composition. The most impacting images are edited and then either delicately rendered into photorealist drawings or carved onto plywood and painted in a looser and more graphic style.

Katie has regularly participated in the City of Joondalup’s Community Art Exhibition, winning the Celebrating Joondalup Award in 2022 and the Inside-Out Billboard Commission in 2023.

Rotated Commission at Joondalup Courthouse

Image: Lake Joondalup, 2021, Naomi Grant.

Naomi Grant is a contemporary indigenous artist and was the 14th artist commissioned to produce an artwork for display as part of the Inside-Out Billboard project. Lake Joondalup is based on a setting at Picnic Cove. For this commission, Grant explored her interests in the landscapes and waterscapes of Australia. Her intention was to capture the beauty, tranquility and regeneration of the lake that so many people, animals and plants rely on. With a background in textiles, Grant often relays the beauty, pattern and colour she sees in the environment and creates her artwork by painting in acrylic and incorporating collage, layering coloured tissue paper over the painted surface. Grant was selected for the commission through the City’s 2020 Invitation Art Prize.

About the Artist

Naomi Grant is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people of central New South Wales and was born in Sydney. She previously lived in Perth and now resides in Queensland. Her successful career as a practicing artist and designer spans the past 40 years, including a Bachelor of Art in Design from W.A.I.T. (now Curtin University).

Grant’s works are held in private and public collections in Australia and overseas, including Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, Tourism Australia, Oxfam Australia and Ronald McDonald House. Her many awards include the inaugural Hawkesbury Art Award in Sydney, as well as awards and purchases from City of Belmont, City of Bayswater, City of Midland, Town of Victoria Park, and City of Blacktown in New South Wales.

Inside-Out Billboard Commissions

Mural Arts Program


Image: Artists Sam Bloor (L) and Trevor Bly (R) at work making “Heathridge”, 2022 at Admiral Park, as part of the City of Joondalup’s Mural Arts program. Photo: Shot by Thom. 

City of Joondalup Mural Programs

The City’s Mural Arts Program features a range of mural styles that reflect the diversity of the local community, region and identity of Joondalup. It also provides community access to high-quality mural arts for place-making, education and appreciation purposes. 

 The City commissions murals through two program streams: 

  • Artist-driven mural programs, whereby an artist is commissioned to install a mural in reference to the location and the surrounding community. This is through a curated shortlisting process or a public expression of interest. 
  • Community-driven murals engaging the community through programs such as the City’s Schools Connections Program in the design and installation of the mural. 

The City has over 20 active murals across City buildings, community centres and public outdoor locations. Previous commissioned artists include Amok Island, Horatio T. Birdbath, Hayley Welsh, Jon Ismailovski, Sara Winfield, Mike Bramford, Emma Margetts, Elizabeth Maruffo, David Ledger, Trevor Bly and Fraser Greg, Anya Brock, Andrew Fraser, Peter Ryan, Kyle Hughes Odgers, Jeremy Lane, Kerise Delcoure, Esty Nagy, Jack Bromell, Darren Hutchens and Trevor Bly and Sam Bloor. 

Featured Murals

Community Sporting Facility, Admiral Park, Heathridge
“Heathridge”, 2022, Trevor Bly & Sam Bloor (pictured) 


Photo: Christophe Canato 

This mural investigates the suburban narrative and how the mechanics of suburbia create places rather than spaces. As a resident of Joondalup, living in Craigie, Trevor Bly explores the links between place-making and the activation of urban buildings and how this impacts our understanding of the suburbs, identity and home. 

Bly and fellow artist, Sam Bloor, have depicted local observations of suburban life, observed by the artists during weekend visits to the oval, and how it is activated with families watching local community sports. The artists have incorporated three design features into this work: the use of suburban iconography (the chair), place-making through text (Heathridge) and a sports drill element (the bullseye game). These three features highlight the Heathridge neighbourhood and how leisure and sport is valued in this community. 

Falklands Park, Kinross
“Edges”, 2021, by Darren Hutchens 2021 (pictured) 


A response to the idea of “the edge” and surrounding landscapes, flora and fauna, this mural was inspired by a collaboration with kids from The Edge Youth Centre. The mural explores the edges around us, the places we inhabit and the boundaries we place on the natural world. The distant horizon, the sun and sky, waves breaking on the shoreline, rocky outcrops, sand dunes and the coastal highway form the composition of the mural. Contours of the land and surrounding lake systems are overlapped with stylised depictions of endemic bird and plant species such as Balga, Banksia, Zamia, Grevillea and Kangaroo Paw. 

Central Park Toilet Block, Joondalup
“Rhythm of the Lake”, 2021, by Jack Bromell (pictured) 


This mural is a striking homage to the beauty of the natural environment within the City of Joondalup. The artist’s choice of royal blue as the dominant colour of the work represents both water and sky. Over this vibrant background appears illustrations of various leaves and flowers from native local plant species, including Eucalyptus recipients, Melaleuca preissiana and Eucalyptus todtiana. Native bird species also feature, including Eastern Great Egrets and the White-faced Heron, two prominent, native water birds, and two Tree Martin Swallows, one perched and one in flight. 

POPP Tables 

Neil Hawkins Park, Joondalup
“Flight of the Black Cockatoo”, 2020, by Karise Delcoure 

Picnic Cove, Edgewater
“Carnaby’s Wa-ee-lah Song”, 2020, by Karise Delcoure 

Geneff Park, Sorrento
“Rain Bird”, 2020, by Karise Delcoure (pictured) 


These murals feature birds and plants native to Western Australia whilst also celebrating the landscape, energy, and movement in each of these very active community spaces. The birds are captured in a movement of flight to reflect the movement and energy of the ping pong games. Repeated patterns, reflecting shapes from the local landscapes and weather patterns, are also incorporated into each of the mural designs. 

The ‘hero’ of each mural is the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, which is an endangered, protected and much-loved bird in Western Australia. The artist’s inclusion of the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo is particularly relevant in the wake of Australia’s devastating bushfires in early 2020. The bushfires at Yanchep during this time destroyed the nesting and feeding grounds of a large colony, putting the species at further risk. The series also features banksias which are a source of food for the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos. 

Marmion Anglican Aquatic Centre (MAAC) Car Park, Sorrento
“Marine Life of Marmion Marine Park”, 2016, by Amok Island (pictured) 


This mural depicts a selection of iconic marine fauna found in the Marmion Marine Park area from invertebrates, crustaceans and molluscs, fish and marine mammals. The artist conducted extensive research, including spending time in Marmion Marine Park photographing marine creatures and drew inspiration from vintage scientific identification charts in the creation of the design. 

Eddystone Underpass, Heathridge
“Untitled”, 2013 by Jon Ismailovski (pictured) 

Ismailovski’s 40-metre-long mural combines fish and fowl, flora and fauna, in monochromatic tone as though Hieronymus Bosch was designing a set for the Wiggles on black and white TV. A hybrid mix of creatures all co-habit in the strange world of Ismailovski’s mural, which addresses the hierarchy of humans and animals, and playfully undermines the control that humans have in this world.  

To receive information about the Mural Arts Program and future callouts, sign up for the Arts in focus eNewsletter. 

For further information please email visualarts@joondalup.wa.gov.au or call 9400 4000.