Deborah Bonar, Wendy Hayden and Joanna Robertson, The Munday Wall, 2012. Image: Christophe Canato.Munday Wall

High Wycombe, Western Australia

  • Client: The Cooling Brothers Glass Company
  • Role of Artsource: Public art consultant
  • Artists: Deborah Bonar, Wendy Hayden, Joanna Robertson
  • Outcome: The installation of a large printed glass artwork on the side of client’s building
  • Artwork budget: Design fee $4,000
  • Completion date: 2012

The client, Cooling Brothers Glass Company, wished to commission a work to show case their commercial glass product.  They were inspired by many Indigenous artworks and collaborated with Artsource to target emerging Indigenous artists for this commission.  The Kidogo artist team, comprising of Deborah Bonar, Wendy Hayden and Joanna Robertson, produced a striking painting based on the Indigenous culture relevant to the site where Cooling Brothers is presently located. The Munday Swamp wetlands were a rich source of food and materialresources for Munday’s people, the Beeloo Clan. They hunted and camped there, made tools, weapons and ceremonial items, looked after their land and their Dreamings.  This prominent artwork will prompt  viewers to wonder about the story behind the image.

Fabrication was handled by Cooling Brothers with the result being an enormous 8 x 9 meter mural featuring the commissioned work reproduced onto glass and installed onto the side of their industrial building. Gracing a bustling commercial stretch on the way to the airport in Perth’s High Wycombe, the artwork is an elegant statement in an otherwise bland industrial landscape.

Deborah Bonar, Wendy Hayden and Joanna Robertson, The Munday Wall, 2012. Image: Christophe Canato.