A floor based design with a class title that comes from a well known Australian poem…..
The basic story of the poem is a country fellow who gets a bicycle without knowing how to ride (as he has only ever ridden a horse) and ends up crashing through the bush into a creek.
My thoughts were to depict the tumbling through the bush and the chaos surrounding this ride.
The structure uses one that I find very useful for this size of design (1 metre square by 2 metres high). You can read about the structure and how to make it by clicking here.
A friendly bicycle repair shop close by to me offered a damaged bike rim that was going to the rubbish so I have incorporated that into the design between two large wire mesh circles covered in strips of bark. These are tied on roughly with string to enhance the feeling of chaos as the bike crashes through the bush.
Native plant material – banksia and woolly bush are placed randomly to again enhance the feeling of chaos. A tall xanthorrhoea flower spike and gymea leaf (dorianthes excelsor) are placed at the front of the design to give the impression of seeing though the bush to the chaos.
This design placed third.
Judges comments: A clever interpretation of the title that makes the viewer feel like they are up close to the action! The design needs more “peripheral” material such as another grouping of gymea leaves to balance the impact of the front placed foliage and bring the design together – there is no real connection, visual or implied, from the circles to the other placements.
