Geoff Farquhar-Still discusses 'Welcome Gesture', the preferred Burnie Gateway Project design. Video by Burnie City Council
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00:00 [Music plays]
00:10 Bernie has an epic landscape.
00:13 When you arrive in the city, you pass avenues of trees, remnants of industry,
00:18 huge piles of timber, huge piles of wood chips,
00:22 and the massive ocean and the sunlight pouring through.
00:25 What we've tried to do upon arrival in the city is provide a gateway
00:29 that talks to that landscape.
00:31 Welcome gesture is based on the idea of a welcoming gesture.
00:35 The form itself is drawn directly from the sweep of a human hand.
00:39 It's an inviting gesture and one that draws you into the city.
00:42 What we were hoping to make was a cinematic experience.
00:45 As you pass through all of the huge finches and vast landscape
00:49 as you come into Bernie, that you enter the site
00:52 and the sculpture itself is set against that backdrop.
00:55 The best way to see it is at speed.
00:58 Moving past and seeing the forms move past one another,
01:02 flickering as you pass.
01:05 The night-time experience of welcome gesture will be iconic.
01:10 Simple gestural lighting at the base of the columns
01:12 will illuminate the way it touches the landscape.
01:15 The fingers themselves will reach up into the port-like sky,
01:19 blip orange at night, and as you move past the sculpture
01:22 you will see the landscape pivot around it.
01:25 The journey from the entrance to the site
01:28 through to this intimate seating location
01:31 will be a meandering path through a native landscape
01:34 dotted with elements, fragments of the larger sculpture
01:37 which have then been converted into opportunities
01:40 for displaying the history of Bernie,
01:43 opportunities for expressions from the community,
01:47 stories about their past, stories about their present
01:49 and even hopes for the future.
01:53 The intent is that we don't just deliver a gateway for Bernie,
01:56 just a sculpture dropped in a spot,
01:58 that we deliver a new place, a new landscape for Bernie,
02:01 a new park and somewhere for the community to come and join and share.
02:05 [Music plays]
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