Industry Profile: Don Macdonald - "The Imagery"

Philomena Yeatman - "Mind Games"

Valmai Pollard - "Wild Flower"

Valmai Pollard - "Muddy Tracks"

The city of Cairns has a new iconic three dimensional Australian Indigenous mosaic artwork in the CBD recently completed by Don Macdonald and The Orchid Group^ team.  

Over the last few weeks we have seen the broad range of artistic and technical skills gained by the team to prepare them for such an undertaking.  We also saw the artists and the stories of their work. This week we explore the translation of the imagery into the mosaic medium.

The redevelopment of Shields Street in the Cairns CBD has enlivened the CBD with a culturally rich and engaging precinct for visitors and locals alike.  It features a range of local Indigenous artists in a variety of mediums sharing the wonderfully unique features of Cairns in the Rainforest to Ocean theme.

A significant artistic and cultural element of the redevelopment is the Shields Street Heart mosaic project.  Council undertook an exhaustive process to select the imagery from artists from the local Yarrabah Indigenous community finally selecting Edna Ambrym, Philomena Yeatman and Valmai Pollard

During Don’s first meeting with Council he expressed his concern that the installation of the mosaics had to be completed during the cooler months (June-August) due to the sensitivity of the epoxy adhesives and grout to heat.  The longest possible adhesive work time would be crucial as there were over 1,000,000 tiles to be laid, many being very small cut pieces, onto complex three dimensional shapes. Continue reading here.

Next time, "The Installation Part I".

Contact us on 1800 331 012 for technical support, arrange a demo, free samples, a trade event, or to discuss your next project or contact us here.

^The Orchid Group is also known as Symmetry Mosaics.