With the last two pieces of Orange City Council’s Future City Public Art project set to be launched this week, Regional Gallery Director Brad Hammond is looking back on the journey so far.
The final two art works, ‘Dancing with Bees’ and ‘Aperture’, come at the end of four years of work and a list of eleven art works across the Orange CBD that involved local and internationally-renowned artists.
Positioned in Anson Street, the artwork, ‘Interrupted Spectrum’ by Liz Shreeve can be found right alongside the footpath next to the Woolworths building. It celebrates the diversity of the people of Orange while also presenting a dazzling play of light and colour.
“I had in mind when I made this work that the colours would reflect the many different people of Orange,” Liz Shreeve said, “with the idea that it takes the inclusion of all to complete the full spectrum or rainbow.”
COLOURS: Liz Shreeve’s Interrupted Spectrum, on the Anson Street Woolies supermarket building in Orange.
“Many of my works can be read on two levels” she adds, “an aesthetic or scientific level, and a symbolic or social level.”
Orange Regional Gallery Director Brad Hammond believes the art work has transformed a formerly dull grey wall.
“Brilliantly using the existing brickwork structure that was once painted a dull grey, Shreeve transformed the wall with her multi-coloured artwork consisting of graded steps along the spectrum,” Brad Hammond said.
“The work is both bold and subtle, depending on which direction you’re travelling along the street.
“If you visit the artwork you’ll notice that Shreeve only painted the colours on one side of the rectangular columns so that on a sunny day the reverse sides are lit up purely by reflected, coloured light. The colours progress along the rainbow, but occasionally Shreeve shuffle them slightly, interrupting the spectrum.
“I love the way this artwork presents a seemingly simple solution for an overlooked wall in the Colour City while also delivering a visually striking effect with an uplifting message.
“This is another example of the way our Public Art projects continue to add colour and interest to our urban spaces. ‘Interrupted Spectrum’ is one of eleven public artworks completed as part of Orange City Council’s Future City program, with major support from a NSW Government Infrastructure Grant.
