Renowned Melbourne artist Alexander Knox stresses that his towering blue sculptures are not just flowers but cloud-like wildflowers that were once wind-blown seeds.
“It’s light, ephemeral and anti-monumental in a way,” he enthuses.
Whatever the description, his recently installed sculptures are a beautiful addition to the Merrifield estate at Mickleham.
In a coup for residents of the Donnybrook Road development, developers MAB Corporation and Gibson Property Corporation commissioned Mr Knox almost a year ago to provide an artistic “anchor” for residents of the yet-to-be completed mini-city.
The artist is behind some of Melbourne’s most high-profile public works, including the kinetic light installation covering AAMI Park, the giant serpentine Creature inside the Royal Children’s Hospital and the LED coloured illumination of a 1960s building on the corner of Swanston and Burke Streets that won the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture in 2008.
When charged with the Merrifield commission, the Northcote-based artist said he wanted the piece to have broad appeal and to work with the landscape.
“It’s so big and empty out there, in a beautiful way,” he said.
In the end the cerulean blue seedlings – actually, steel – which appear bent as though by wind, mirror his preparatory cardboard cut-out.
“It’s almost a child’s cut-out of a cloud in cardboard,” he said. “I wanted that same spontaneous, playful feel.”
He hopes the sculpture, as yet unnamed, will provide some instant soul to the newly fabricated city.
“They [the seedlings] have a role of identifying the place. They’re an identifiable feature, there to announce that you’ve arrived somewhere.”
