City of Fremantle, Decommissioned Reece Harley City of Fremantle, Decommissioned Reece Harley

Numbat Mural

Image source Lyda Hayward

Artist: ROA

Asset Type: Mural, Decommissioned

Year of Work: 2011

Location: Henderson Street Mall

Provenance: City of Fremantle

Description: Commissioned by the City of Fremantle the mysterious Belgian artist ROA created the Numbat Mural in one night. It quickly became a beloved Fremantle icon.

ROA chose the numbat after time spent with Aboriginal Elders of the Pilbara learning about the wildlife. He chose the numbat because it was endangered and that people in the city so easily forget about the natural environment.

In 2022 the heritage limestone wall that held the mural was set to be demolished as part of Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s new hotel development. At time of writing (2025) the new development has yet to start but the building has been removed and the nearby carparking area has been expanded.

Read more: perthnow, thewest

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City of Perth Reece Harley City of Perth Reece Harley

Ascalon

Image source St. George’s Cathedral

Artist: Marcus Canning, Christian de Vietri

Asset Type: Sculpture

Year of Work: 2011

Location: St George’s Cathedral, Cathedral Square Precinct, Perth, WA.

Provenance: City of Perth

Description: Ascalon seeks to create a space of contemplation, exhilaration, and inspiration. It distils the essence of St George mythology in a contemporary, abstracted rendition that is timeless in its relevance, evoking the greater archetypal truths that permeate from his story and how these truths pertain to the individual and to society, now and for centuries to come.

In Medieval Romance, ‘Ascalon’ is the name of the lance used by St George to slay the dragon. Here, the lance is rendered as a monumental tube that emits a single beam of light into the heavens at night. It is set into a large fragmented landscape of black epoxy coated steel plate. An abstracted representation of the slain body of the dragon, this highly detailed and complexly faceted terrain has a crack running along its central axis that emanates from the point where the lance has entered the petrified, fossilised, and fragmented form of the dragon.

At night, light shines up through the crack, illuminating the luminous white form suspended above it.

The third element to the work is a billowing white cloak form that wraps and warps in a single undulating plane around the lance. It is cast in white epoxy coated hybrid composite, and despite its large dimensions, holds an ethereal lightness alongside its elemental power.

The form is an abstraction of St George on his steed and also references the recurring cloak form that features in many depictions of St George across Western art history, usually operating as a field similar to a halo or angel’s wings. The form aims to evoke a sense of righteous power and victory over a force of darkness and oppression.

The form of Ascalon has been developed and modelled in a digital environment in collaboration with New York-based architect Eldad Lev, allowing for a seamless ‘press play’ transition to fabrication using the latest in 3D printing and digitally controlled sculpting machinery.

Perth-based structural engineering firm Capital House, who were behind the Kings Park Suspension Bridge, are the project managers of the Ascalon fabrication and site build, and they have, amongst other things, designed a customised dampening system to tune the form to the specific wind conditions of the site.

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City of South Perth Reece Harley City of South Perth Reece Harley

World Peace Dreamer

Artist: Kaivalya Torpy

Year of Work: 2011

Location: Scented Gardens, South Perth Foreshore

Description: Kaivalya Torpy a student of Sri Chinmoy has produced several statues of Sri Chinmoy which have been placed in different parts of the world. He describes the art of making the statues as “an inspiration and a meditation”.The first statue of Sri Chinmoy was produced in 2006. The current series of full size sculptures began being produced in 2008 post the 2007 death of Sri Chinmoy.

Asset Type: Sculpture

Provenance: City of South Perth

Image Source City of South Perth

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