Client: Western Australian Government - Department for Finance / BMW

Overview

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.

Goals

Paula is recognised for a unique approach to laser cut designs, in that her work is highly pictorial and employs participatory design processes, often including the community in all stages from determining the concept through to utilising participants' drawings.

Working with children’s designs is more than a ticked box for community engagement. The attention to the details of our environment leads to love of place, and the inclusion of an intricately detailed artwork, created by the existing school community through this process adds an emotional connection to where we live and learn. This emotional value is crucial in the educational environment.

An awareness of the changes around us and the inherent beauty of observation is a critical skill and creates connections to our built and natural environment. So, the artist asked a group of children to take her on a tour of the school grounds, to show the secret and not so secret places of imaginative play. The children talked about games with the nuts of various trees, sucking the nectar from the honeysuckle flowers, a certain gap in the fence and how despite being a beachside suburb there are never seagulls.

Process

With a long history of working with children’s artwork, it is vitally important to Paula to keep the integrity of the original as close as possible, avoiding editing, censoring or neatening up. She conducts highly structured drawing workshops, with the task then to translate these illustrations, authentically capturing the unselfconscious charm of children’s drawing, while creating a visual work that has a strong aesthetic sensibility with sophistication and significance.

In this instance the commission was design only, with the architect and builder taking on the fabrication & installation, and details such as colour choice.

Additional Information

Within the patterns and imagery of the artwork the artwork becomes something akin to Alice’s rabbit hole. The students of Scarborough Primary School are so excited and proud to see their ideas and drawings presented in such a significant way. And of course finding their contributions is a game in itself.