Urchins Australia

CONCEPT

FABRICATION & INSTALLATION

PUBLISHED IN

THE URCHINS IN AUSTRALIA

2018 Commonwealth Games, Festival 2018

Gold Coast, Australia

Design

Jin Choi and Thomas Shine

Curator

Swell Sculpture

Engineer

Om Engineering

Steel Fabrication

Modern Metal Solutions, Concentric Fabrication

Installation

Swell Sculpture

Theatre Safe Australia

Maclift Crane Services

Special Thanks to

The City of Gold Coast

Kate Fell, Creative Director, Festival 2018

Julianne Pierce, Producer, Festival 2018

Natasha Edwards and Ruth Della , Swell Sculpture

The Urchins are tangible and inhabitable art.

Placed in Appel park and near the canal, it creates a shelter from the hot sun during the day with its pendulum like movement that sways with the breeze.

When close to the lace, one can understand that every part of the lace is touched and created by hand. In the Urchins, the intricate detail and mathematical patterns are creating new windows to a familiar landscape, juxtaposing the old with the new, feminine lace with masculine urban scape and nature with man-made.

Although they are composed of a firm membrane made from strong marine grade cord held rigid in metal construction, the Urchins create an illusion of a levitating diaphanous lace, light weight and delicate, softly glowing with gentle movement.

Contact: Choi+Shine Architects for written permission for image use.

The Lace symbolically weaves different people and cultures, different urban textures and the past with the future. Lace is used as an embellishment, a special celebration of milestones of life, feminine and delicate, private and often intimate.

Encounter with a lace in monumental scale in unexpected public space create a element of surprise which contributes to the memory of time and space.

Seeing hovering and glowing lacy objects against majestic skyscrapers and dark water makes the viewers pause and gaze. This momentary pause of the mundane routine of our life give us an opportunity to find the poetry around us.