STARS: a reimagined environment, 2020
Across 2018-2020, I worked in collaboration with CREATIVEMOVE, Australian Unity, WATPAC and specialist fabricators to produce a body of public artwork for the new Herston Health precinct, STARS (Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service).
My body of work for the STARS main foyer is comprised of two large inlaid carpets (fabricated by Designer Rugs), a substantial foyer screen of brass poles (manufactured by Precision Engineering & Manufacturing) and applied privacy vinyl screens to the ground floor windows (fabricated by Colour Synergy), each design derived from original relief print artworks.
Inspired by the immediate natural landscape of STARS, I drew on my practice as an emerging contemporary printmaker to create a reimagined environment. The organic designs of the main foyer are an extension of the surrounding gardens, an exploration of local flora interacting with the existing architecture.
Surrounded by native and introduced plant life, the STARS environment privileges a diverse and interconnected ecology. The growth of such a rich and vibrant habitat reflects the city of Brisbane, one that brims with its own diverse ecology of communities and culture.
By incorporating the intricate repetition of carved line through organic patterns and forms, I created pieces that allow one plant (one story) to finish as another plant begins (a new story). The stories in these pieces for the main foyer aim to highlight the complexity of nature, mirroring our own complexity in how we choose to live, converse and interact with each other.
This project has led to exciting opportunities, including my rug collection with Designer Rugs Australia and recently being nominated for Rider Levett Bucknall’s Award for Best Public Art Project in April 2022.
STARS Public Art Commission
Images: STARS - main foyer entrance (Herston Precinct, Queensland, Australia). Photo: AJ Moller. Courtesy of the the artist, Australian Unity and CREATIVEMOVE.
STARS - main foyer entrance (Herston Precinct, Queensland, Australia). Photo: AJ Moller. Courtesy of the artist, Australian Unity and CREATIVEMOVE.
Interior Landscape: Propagation, 2021.
Vinyl-cut on Hahnemühle paper with hand coloured watercolour.
Paper size: 40.5 x 121cm. Edition of 30.
Propagation describes the variety of flora found within the inner-city botanical gardens of Meanjin/Brisbane. Tamika uses repeated lines to create a design that allows one plant (one story) to finish as another plant begins its new story. The narratives within this design highlight the complexities of nature and evoke the way individual city dwellers live, converse and interact with each other within the presence of nature, art and design.
This original print informed the designs to create and fabricate the inlaid carpets as part of the main foyer entrance.
Photo: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.
STARS - main foyer inlaid carpet and brass screen (Herston Precinct, Queensland, Australia). Photo: AJ Moller. Courtesy of the artist, Australian Unity and CREATIVEMOVE.