Touring Exhibition Display at Mount Barker

When: November 24th, Thursday

Time: Open 9:00am - 4:00pm daily

Where: Visitors Centre Mount Barker

RSVP: Email warep@maanz.org if you are interested in attending

University of Western Australia's mosaics tour

On Wednesday 16 November a party of 17 were fortunate to be given a guided tour of the University of Western Australia's mosaics. There are four mosaics in the University Art Collection:-

Margo Lewers, Changing Colours,  1961, ceramic tiles on boards. Location- Engineering Department.

Napier Waller, The Five Lamps of Knowledge,1931, Venetian glass tiles. Location - Outside of Winthrop Hall, Great Gateway over the window of the Senate Room.

Napier Waller, Well Done Good and Faithful Servant, 1931, glass mosaic tiles (Smalti). Location - Winthrop Hall entrance foyer.

Howard Taylor, sculptural work - Black Stump, 1975. This is very large three piece concrete and glass tile sculpture. The surface's are covered with small coloured tesserae. Location between the Octagon Theatre and the Arts building.

There is also a beautiful mosaic floor in the foyer of Winthrop Hall made of various coloured marble.

This was the first time that a tour specific to the mosaics on campus had been requested, so the Curator had needed to do a little research before the tour. Having done so, she was very excited about the mosaics and so were we. In particular, the Napier Waller mosaics were very beautiful.

One of the surprises of the tour was a visit to the Chemistry Department where the atrium style building hosts two major iconic art works - a double helix structure of DNA of stainless steel plate, which climbs to a height of 20 metres up one wall of the atrium. The second  more complex artwork is the tile floor which covers approximately an acre in area. It has a remarkable pattern of fivefold symmetry known as Penrose tiling.

As is often the case, we travel the world to see artworks, but we are still discovering amazing works in our own back yard so a further two mosaic tours (Perth locations)are planned for the New Year.