Paula occupies a unique position in the Western Australian arts community. She is an independent visual artist who has diversified her working life in several clear directions whilst maintaining a visual arts practice of the highest calibre. Embracing public artworks, the arts & education sector and festival arts, she works with a driving commitment to create art employing processes of community participation, cultural mapping and identity. Paula is extremely well traveled and her eclectic artistic practice is born of an internationalist perspective. Always, she engages with these areas at an elite professional level with great dedication, intelligence, passion and good humour.
A tree house, a free house, A secret you and me house, A high up in the leafy branches Cozy as can be house. Decorative 5mm Corten screens with a “bush cubby” theme - Australian wildflowers, local birds, sticks and pioneers’ bricks form the curved walls of a series of four elevated yarn circles.
Western Australian artist Paula Hart collaborated with the Dutch design house Redfort Fabrics and the school students to create the Lacefence for South Bunbury Primary School, in Western Australia. The artwork authentically captures the unselfconscious charm of the students’ drawings of Bunbury's local bird life, translated into traditional lace bobbin stitches.
A collaborative commission between the Australian artist, Paula Hart and Dutch based Redfort Architectural Fabrics, with their product Lace Fence for the Catholic Homes – Sister Mary Glowery Aged Care Facility in Perth, Western Australia. The custom lace patterned artworks with designs of birds and floral elements are created in SS304 Stainless Steel and powder coated in Interpon D2525. The artwork consists of 6 screens for the entry Port Cochere and a complimentary series of 8 panels integrated into the fencing and gates. The fencing and gate panels range from 2881mm x 1600mm, 2657mm x 1390mm and 2953mm x 1600mm totaling 87m2. Just as lace in the Church is symbolic of the effort and care put into the worship of God, Lace Fence by comparison to industrial laser-cut or perforated metal, conveys a similar message. Lace Fence communicates positive, emotional connection through its intricately detailed, hand crafted materiality. Its gentle presence says “kindness”. Its craftsmanship says, “you are valued”. In the context of an aged care facility this message conveyed through craftsmanship is invaluable.
A collaborative commission between the artist, Paula Hart and Dutch based Redfort Architectural Fabrics, with their product Lace Fence. Lace Fence is a high-end metal fabric that reinterprets the cyclone fence, known for its ugliness and negative connotation, introducing designs of handmade bobbin lace wire within machine made industrial fencing. The close up investigations of the bell shaped jacaranda blossoms, the vein-like texture of the flowers and the inner stamens have been translated into various stitch types. The 240m2 artwork has been made with SS316 steel wire, powder coated with Interpon D2015 Ultriva and installed as panels to a modularised framing system.
Nine Zeros, Nine Stories is a collaboration between two Australian artists, Perth based Paula Hart and Broome local Lok Chris Maher. The work aims to reveal and enhance the history and curiosity of the many perspectives of the Japanese attack on Broome, Western Australia on 3 March 1942. It stands as a silent legacy to those who lost their lives, and the impact on this remote Australian community. The nine figures stand less than 2km from, and looking out to, the site of one of the fifteen wrecks, a Catalina FV-N. The figures stand among the silhouettes of nine Zeros arranged into three Shotai flying formations depicted coming from the southwest, the flight path they took on March 3, 1942.
Western Australian artist Paula Hart created Six Seasons for the Stan and Jean Perron Child Advocacy Centre, which houses multiple children's services. As a new building built within the Midland Railway yards the building design echoed the old buildings with 6 large openings, which perfectly suited a series of 6 large artwork screens. The screens are each 5600mm x 4400mm and comprised of 8 x 5mm aluminum laser cut panels, telling a reinterpreted story of the Noongah Six Seasons. The works are powder coated with Interpon D2525 to depict the colours of the seasons. The artwork screens are airflow for the multistory carpark and address all Australian Building Codes for airflow, wind load, pressure etc. The designs are unique in that they are highly pictorial and participatory, utilising children's drawings. The artist is not indigenous, but sought to build the connections between young people's lives, the natural environment and indigenous traditions.
Multilayered feature fence artwork depicting the fire service designed by Paula Hart utilising illustrations created through structured drawing workshops with local school children. The project was commissioned for the new Kensington Fire Station by the Department for Fire and Emergency Services through Western Australia’s Percent for Art Scheme. Across the 36m wide Corten background the landscape moves from the Western Australian native bush environment through to urban buildings. The powder coated feature panels of a burning tree, fire engine and fire service personnel stand off the background in a double-sided manner so that the artwork can be viewed from both sides by different audiences.
The Journey is a six storey metal artwork at the entrance of the Stan & Jean Perron Child Advocacy Centre, which houses multiple children's services for young people at risk in Perth, Western Australia. The message of art in the Child Advocacy Centre context must be “Enter.” Within the patterns and imagery of the artwork it says, “Enter a Place Where You Are Welcome”. Paula Hart created two artworks for the building. The Six Seasons carpark screens and this welcoming entry statement. Paula created the artwork in a participatory process with young people in a focus group to discover a suitably symbolic image, that conveys this message of a welcoming entry and safe place. The intention is for the decoratively cut metal paneling to be reminiscent of many elements of childhood – paper lanterns, shadow puppets and kirigami.
Western Australian artist Paula Hart created Secret Garden, a decorative staircase for Scarborough Primary School in Perth, Western Australia. With the school & architect setting the overarching themes of belonging and inclusivity, it was exciting to be able to work with an existing school community with strong school pride. The artist employed processes that directed the students towards a unique view of their place / community and this imagery was then translated as 5mm powder-coated, aluminium panels for the staircase, window features and a large feature wall integrated within the design of new building additions for this well established school.
Through delicate lacework patterns, the ‘Lace Fence’ transforms the 3.6 metre security fence that weaves through the school’s grounds. Concentrated in the south-eastern corner of the basketball courts, the artwork diffuses out over 7 or 8 meters in each direction like a fantastical plant structure.