Victorian Sites
Dandenong CBD Art Makers Project: Vessels of Light
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Landscape Architect: Sinatra Murphy Pty Ltd
Location: Dandenong, Melbourne (20km south of the CDB)
SUMMARY
Vessels of Light are a series of seven visual markers along a defined route between the Walker Street car park and Boyd Lane in Dandenong, Victoria. They were developed in response to the Brief for the Dandenong CBD Art Markers Project, a temporary 5 year installation awarded to Sinatra Murphy through a successful concept and tender submission in 2006.
The vessels are inspired by the idea of ‘trade of culture’. Today the City’s multicultural population is continually adding to the cultural texture of the greater Dandenong area through the sharing of faith, language, cuisine and knowledge. Cultural experience is actively traded in daily life through restaurants and general retail. The ideas of vessel and trade also connect with Dandenong’s history of being a major trading centre for farmers and the City’s more recent identity as a significant manufacturing centret. Vessel is used a symbol of the City’s spirit.
The shape developed for the Vessels of Light is generic and inspired by cultural containers such as Turkish perfume bottles, Vietnamese candle boxes, and other exotic shapes that reference objects from ‘other places’. They are fabricated from fluorescent acrylic, brilliantly displaying colours from the national flags of countries represented through Dandenong’s ‘waves of migration’, reinforcing the unique nature of the vessels’ form.
Their contents isLight - the medium used to bring the visual markers to life through materials and construction methods that respond to ambient light conditions for a numinescence or inner-glow during the day, and programmed LED lighting to illuminate the core at night. They visually engage pedestrians and create a sense of fun and vitality, adding to Dandenong’s aspiration of creating a 24hr city.
The seven Vessels of Light have a consistent form and size, but vary in colour display. They are fabricated with 100% recyclable fluorescent acrylic sheets threaded horizontally over vertical acrylic cores. The 6mm sheet is computer cut and polished, creating an optically dynamic lamination. The vessels are 1.7m in height and 600mm at the widest part weighing approximately 200kg. They are position on walls of both council assets and private property. Their elevated positions have been determined by visibility, visual continuity and the 4.2 metre clear zone to be free from delivery transport. Stainless steel brackets hold the vessels from the wall and house the LED light fittings.
The project was conceptualized, designed, managed and supervised by Phin Murphy, Sinatra Murphy Pty Ltd. The vessels were fabricated and installed by AusPlastics, the brackets were fabricated by CP Engineering, and the LED supplied and programmed by Coemar Di Sisti. The project was officially launched on 24 July 2007.
introduction / overview / images / location / /Projects
2008
