Proposed Sculpture on Whatley Crescent

As you may be aware, this proposal originated from local business requests for improvements, including a sculpture, at this street corner. The businesses collaborating on this project are Maylands Wellness Centre, Vintage Emporium, Firefly Gifts and (previously) Century 21. Connecting this section of the Whatley Crescent strip to the main section of the strip across Ninth Avenue has remained a key objective of the project.

Following months of consultation and collaborative concept development, these businesses have unanimously agreed to the final concept developed by Respoke designer Kirsten Masgai. Inspired by the businesses' fondness for another of .reSPOKE's artworks (a pair of penny farthing bicycles), and their love of 'vintage' references, the businesses asked the designer to rework the 'penny farthing' concept for the Whatley Crescent context.

The one-off design involves a pair of penny farthing bicycles in a metallic brass/bronze colour, facing one another to create a wide 'v' shape over the street corner. The sculpture can double as bicycle racks, with good visibility of bikes from café tables on the Whatley Crescent verge across Ninth Avenue. Brass text will be inset into the footpath and verge, looking like tyre tracks leading from the back wheel of each bike out both sides of Ninth Avenue. The paths will be treated with a red-brown speckled stencilcrete to match the verge area and provide more visual contrast with the brass text 'tyre tracks'. The 'tyre tracks' will feature a short poem related to the nature of businesses they lead to (gifts and treasures towards Vintage Emporium and Firefly Gifts, and food towards Sherbet Bakeshop and the rest of the 'café strip'). .reSPOKE estimates the installation date to be mid to late October 2020.