Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

r I Th e Co uri e r -Ma il 8 Ma y 19 82 RENOWNED sculptor-potter– designer Peter Travis had been working since daylight in the base– ment below the gymnasium of the City Art Institute. You could hardly move about the room for benches littered with pieces or fabric, stacks of fibreglass and sketches. Peter Travis emerged from behind one of the benches and weaved his way past a for– at or his latest creation. Travis is acknowledaed u an internation– al expert in what he terms "flyina color field geometric constructions." To put it more simply he's a man who flies kites. But, rather, he describes his latest work u aerial sculpture. He'i workina aaainst time to complete a commi11ion for the Queensland Art Gal– lery. His work will hana in the water mall due to be opened on June 21. His kiteaculp– turc will fill the entire ·water mall pllery area. Kc described the work for the aallery as a very romantic conccpL The prototype of his work is small and delicate but the finished thins will be massive, The nine kites and aceompaniment of fabrics - or the aerial sculpture II Mr Travis insists it be called - will extend for 36 m. in the water mall space. Each of the kitca is 180 cm hiah and 205 cm wide. The entire pro.JOCl, to be called mctamorphyais, will lieu hiah u 9 m. Tbc kites will be made of anodised alu• minium and the fabric bu been dyed in a hup ranac of colon. They'll be faxed to the ccilina or the pllcry by stainleu steel cable and braced with atalnlaa steel -.ire. Peter Travia, u an artist, la intriped by the rclatiombip bctweca form ud mew. ment, color and liahL He belicfta bla kita are the ideal way to abow bow colorcan tab on a different pcnonality when liJbt is ro– flocted from or trammitted throup IL He said: ... decided aomc ycan hack to use the kite u a format to make a statement about color." . Ju\ hill kit~ arc -~ ~naular, tniii~ular, ocla~ flwaonal or aqurc -malti-c:olored eon1tructi11111 with fabulou•· Iona tails ofsilk or other fabrics. About four ycan aao he was commi1- 1ioned to make a kite ror the National Health Commilaion buildina in Canberra. He bucd it on the Lawrence Harrves box kite - a tribute to·Australia's pioneer air• man. '"The Ha,araves .box kite wu my point of departure but I finally wound upwith~ thing more complex and·somewhat space age," be said. Capturing the wind in sculpture From OLIVER HARVEY in Sydney The foyer of the building was an octago– nal shape and he decided to use the octagon as the basic shape for his box kite. What he eventually made was an ingenious construc– tion consistina of two octagons wrapped around two more compressed octagons to which he added eight enormous radiating wings. "It was so complicated in its form that I didn't want to use any color- but the trou– ble was that I'd been employed for color. · They'd chosen to hana one of my kites in• stead of a tapestry." He finally compromised about the color. He painted two deep yellow stripes straight through the centre of the kite, paler yellow around the edges, and used brown stitching to emphasise the construction. ' Kites can be made to perform as .· actors in the sky. ' For Peter Travis, the joy of creatina is cqualto the joy offlyina. · "Small boys ny kites to-acape from the world, to fulfill the desire of not being earth– bound and to identify with the bird. Men do this, too. even if it 'is accrctively. "The kites can be made to perform as ac• tors in the sky where a aina)e performance can be visually experienced by any sized au- . dicnce. ' "I've done this on occasions, for instance, when I've cboreoarapbed tbe performances o( kites outside - a form of theatre in the sky. "In the case of this Queensland commis– sion for instance, they will hang statically but they're all aerodynamic and can ny." Mr Travis is a lecturer in ceramics at the City Art Institute. part of the Sydney Col– lege of Advanced Education. He said there were analogies between his ceramics and kites. "Both arc constructed from a series of geometric variations. With ceramics, I'm making geometric units that arc mostly cir– cular because plastic form holds its tension bat in a circle - the kites, too, arc a series ofsuch shapes. . "The difference is that material has warp1 and wefts and the tensions are best respected usin, squares, rcctanalcs and tri- angles. ' "I use subtle colors in my ceramics - there may be as many as 40 individual col– on, and bold colors in my kites. "When light passes through the fabric kita, they will glow like stained glau win– dows. Even colon Jhat would otherwise ap– pear duU will be famiDOUI and vital." Some years ago Peter Travis attracted at• tention when several. of his atained-aJaaa– atylc kitca ~ana•in Briabuc'a St John's Ca– thedl'al for a Queensland arta fcativil. The ,arsat wu originally 100 m. long and ,nade of 3500 pieces. He 11~ the new Queensland art aallery hu extraordinarily beautiful spaces. "The water mall is beautifully propor– tioned. It has a presence." Peter Travis sees the kites as a phsyical manifestation of the wind. He said this lat– est work for Brisbane was a "statement that involves air and water. "As soon uair moves it becomes a breeze or wind and whenever- it's near water there's an immediate-reaction. "When the air is still, the water is still, if the air moves the water gently undulates so \ . there'• t ments." ' Refer he expl1 from tlH color fr< color is "The the CS$C the feeli ing up11 "It i1 whateve actually runy no gallery i •