Industrial Flowers

Artist: Akira Takizawa

Year: 1993
Location: Newport Park, Parade/North Rd, Newport.
Materials: Steel

Description

The aim of Industrial Flowers is to link the Park’s previous use as an industrial landmark to its current life as landscaped environment open to natural elements.

At the entrance to Newport Park two smaller sculptural ‘flowers’ made using parts from power-generation machinery, form an entrance that leads to the central sculpture. The massive cluster of open flowers, fashioned from turbine diaphragms and boiler pipes which once generate electrical energy, suggest the wind energy which sweeps out to the bay.

Akira considers his sculpture to be “a three-dimensional poem to that eternal spirit. I wanted to speak of a new growth that must come from the old... a three dimensional poem that spoke of the cycle of growth and decay. Old things go and new things come, continuous change. I wanted to use the organic material of the place, beautifully angled pipes, really flowing, the turbines themselves. Beautiful work, lovingly crafted with the eye and the hand. Industrial machinery makers of the past were artists, people’s artists. Whilst the craft is gone now it shouldn’t be forgotten. And now they are alive again and the people around here will recognise it for what it used to be.”

About the artist

Takizawa, trained as a temple designer and traditional joiner migrated to Australia from Japan and spent time living in Williamstown.