David Lee Pereira, Kaniva Silo Artwork 2020, Kaniva, Victoria. Photography by Shannyn Higgins. Commission delivered by ART AID.
In Kaniva, a grain silo became a 35 by 50 metre canvas.
On the edge of the Little Desert in western Victoria, artist David Lee Pereira painted his largest mural to date across the concrete silos of Kaniva. Delivered by ART AID for GrainCorp and West Wimmera Shire Council, the work is a tribute to the endemic flora and fauna of the Wimmera.
Kaniva Silo Artwork, Kaniva, Victoria. Photography by Shannyn Higgins.
The artwork
Stylistically influenced by the Baroque, the artwork responds directly to its place. The Australian Hobby, a falcon local to the area, forms the focal point. Around it, Pereira worked with local photographer Cindy McDonald to incorporate the flora that surrounds the site, sourcing photographs of two varieties of native Sun Orchid from the Little Desert. These rare orchids flower briefly each spring, for only a couple of weeks, and now hold a permanent place on the silos.
The scale of the delivery matches the scale of the surface. In the artist's words: "We painted for over 200 hours straight through the elements and the cockatoo attacks and rain, painting with 400 litres of paint to create this tribute to the Little Desert and endemic flora and fauna of the Wimmera shire."
Over 200 hours of painting and 400 litres of paint. Photography by Shannyn Higgins.
The artist
David Lee Pereira's practice spans drawing and painting, in the studio and at mural scale, with work exhibited and installed across Melbourne, Sydney, and Berlin. A Melbourne born artist of Euro-Asian heritage, Pereira's work moves between the masculine and the feminine, giving voice to the subtleties of human emotion. At Kaniva, that sensibility meets solid concrete at its largest scale yet.
David Lee Pereira, Kaniva. Photography by Shannyn Higgins.
The commission
The site was awarded to ART AID by GrainCorp, who have supported Australian art in regional communities for many years, working alongside West Wimmera Shire Council. Commissions like Kaniva show what public art can do outside the capital cities: give a town a landmark, and give the region's own flora and fauna a place in its identity.
With thanks to David Lee Pereira for a work of remarkable scale and care. To Cindy McDonald for the local knowledge and photography behind the orchids. To Shannyn Higgins for documenting the work. And to GrainCorp and West Wimmera Shire Council for their commitment to art in regional Australia.
ART AID is a public art and cultural consultancy working at the intersection of art, community, and place. To find out more about our work visit art-aid.co or follow @artaidau.
