BONDI MERMAID GARDEN
In acknowledgment of Lyall Randolph’s famous mermaid sculptures that once adorned the headland of Ben Buckler; yet eventually destroyed by large seas, Waverley Council launched a competitive EOI for designers, public artists and architects to revisit the idea of mermaids.
Our inspiration is derived from an attempt to frame the brief in a truly unique way. We see this project as an opportunity to further our understanding of these mythical creatures. Rather than just a figurative artwork capturing peoples perception of a mermaid; we went about asking ourselves...
‘What would a garden designed for a Mermaid consist of?’
In an era where our awareness of the oceans and natural systems is
increasingly important, the mermaid serves as a symbol that imparts lessons about the rhythms of the natural world.
Our artwork embodies this concept by seamlessly integrating the fleeting nature of the environment into its core. A shallow reflection pond, inspired by the rock pools of Bondi, is strategically positioned to reference the headland of Ben Bucker. After rainfall events, this element will reflect not only the site of the original bronze mermaids but become a dynamic visual experience across the celestial cycle.
Ephemeral in nature, this reflection pond will reference the tides of the ocean, sometimes being full and sometimes dry. Excess rain will be channelled into a bordering garden of flowering perennials and semi-aquatic native grasses that will reference the kelp and seaweed forests. Lastly, the lost mermaids from the previous artwork will be thematically fossilised in the paving surface, engaging with human-scale elements and playfully intertwining with visitors' shadows, blurring the boundaries between human and mermaid forms.