Work of windmill art

GRANT Flather has taken something ordinary and turned it into a piece of extraordinary art.

Mr Flather came across a tilted windmill on a South Gippsland property and chose to resurrect it into a piece of art.

“To me, it looked like the windmill was looking at something on the ground near its base. It got me thinking what if these old machines were actually alive?” he said.

Mr Flathers went on to construct A Meeting of Minds, a sculpture that depicts the windmill leaning over a young child who is holding a miniature fairground windmill.

The child is constructed with pieces of old machinery and represents a youth from the future with an appreciation for traditional farm mechanics like windmills.

“People would be surprised to hear at one stage there were over 90 windmills in Yanakie alone. Farmers relied solely on the windmills to transfer water from underground or from dams across their farms,” he said.

“A single windmill could draw water from 200 feet underground and push the water over a kilometre along pipes. It’s a shame the windmills are disappearing. I think they are quite beautiful,” Mr Grant said.

“It is quite a subtle piece really. The idea came very early on. I sketched it very quickly.”

The sculpture can be viewed at Lucinda Estate in Leongatha until the end of January.

Creative thinker: Grant Flathers and wife Helen at the opening of the exhibition at Lucinda Estate where his work A Meeting of Minds is displayed (main photo).

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Dec 30 2015. Filed under Arts & Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry