Large scale mosaic installations

Glass mosaics provide incredible creative scope. Mosaic Art provides both beauty and longevity. The timeless elegance of Italian glass mosaics provides the perfect medium to showcase art in a public area. The resilience of glass lends longevity to your feature, whether it be indoor or outdoor.

Our services and resources

We provide creative infrastructure solutions for mosaic art installations in diverse public areas such as outdoor malls, exterior facades, parks and corporate settings. Offering a full concept-to-completion service, we carefully assess the greater picture of your brief. Our commitment is to deliver not only an outstanding creative concept, but a sound implementation plan for the installation.

With a fusion of creativity and technical excellence, our team of artisans offer an array of skills. Don Macdonald is the team’s principal artisan and mosaics specialist, with over 25 years’ experience in creating and installing mosaic art features. He is well known as being an expert in his field, having trained in twice Italy, attaining his Masters qualification in 2013. Unusually talented with an equal measure of pragmatic realism and artistic ability, Don also brings vast experience in the structural dynamics of installation.

Our collaboration with our alliance partner brings an extensive background in fine art management and creative solutions. With decades of experience, they are highly skilled in the arts across multiple media. This enables us to easily source the right career creatives to produce unique imagery aligned with your vision. Our technical execution and project management brings it all into reality.

Communication and attention to detail are essential to the success of any large scale project. From our initial consultation, we prepare concepts, detailed documentation and a written quotation. Our clear flow chart gives your project structure, and regular progress reports are a priority. Our focus is to deliver an outstanding creative result, skilfully managed to your brief. Below is a case study of a significant installation we successfully completed. Connect with us to arrange a time to discuss the vision for your project.

Cairns Regional Council:
Shields Street Heart Re-development 2016

Our first significant public art showcase was the three dimensional, $700,000 Indigenous mosaic art installation project for Cairns Regional Council’s Shields Street Heart re-development. An iconic translation of six domestic sized paintings from three local Indigenous artists into eight low walls around the landscaped gardens in Shields Street, Cairns totalling 164/m².

Yarrabah artists, Philomena Yeatman, Edna Anbrym and Valmai Pollard were selected to produce designs and artworks for reformation as a major public mosaic art works on Shields Street, Cairns. This exciting public art opportunity was a mammoth undertaking over 12 months, and is the first major public art installation to proudly represent any artist of Yarrabah.

The task:

To translate flat designs of local Indigenous (Yarrabah) artists’ paintings into 3-D mosaic art low walls, and install these in the central CBD of Cairns.
To maintain the integrity and cultural stories of the artists’ work in this different medium.
To ensure the longevity of the installation and ease of long-term maintenance.

Our scope:

Together with our alliance partner, Artistic Solutions Group, we digitally scaled and reproduced 3-D imagery from the six canvas artworks provided by the artists. We adapted and expanded the imagery to fit and curve around the unusually shaped, long walls. We worked closely with the Yarrabah artists, and their representative, to ensure the integrity of their artwork was maintained in the translation – a cultural commitment we were proud to serve. We handled project management of the installation of the mosaic artwork, and liaised with Council throughout the 12 month period.

The results:

Our client was absolutely delighted with our performance and with the final results, as the testimonials below show. The final installation fulfilled their brief in uniting the story of the different language groups, showcasing the region’s cultural history. It was a joy to witness the appreciation of the three Yarrabah artists, when they first saw the completed installation. From their reaction, we knew we had achieved the desired result. Six years on, the site has maintained its original beauty.

Kind words from our clients

Cairns Regional Council recently contracted Don Macdonald from Symmetry Mosaics to install highly detailed mosaic tiled artwork on complex curved concrete seats for the Shields Street Heart Project in Cairns.

It was apparent from initial communications that Don was highly professional and willing to offer all necessary support to facilitate this project. Don also introduced Keith Murphy from Artistic Solutions Group, who provided an effective communication link between the Indigenous artists and Council designers. This allowed the previously stalled process of converting the indigenous artworks into 3D tiled mosaics to progress. Throughout the project, Don and Keith offered workable options and solutions while maintaining the integrity of the artwork.

On site, Don and his team earned a high level of trust. Their commitment to safety, quality and honouring the design intent was impeccable. Don worked very well with adjacent contracts and found workable solutions to design, production and weather obstacles without delay or complaint. The entire Symmetry Mosaics team shared this mantra and maintained their attention to detail while working long hours away from their home base.

I would have no hesitation recommending Symmetry Mosaics and their alliance partner, Artistic Solutions Group, for future works in the Far North Region.

Cairns Regional Council

Martin Perkowicz, Manager Cairns Works Construction

Yarrabah artists Philomena Yeatman, Edna Ambrym and Valmai Pollard were selected to produce designs and artworks for reformation as major public mosaic works on Shields Street, Cairns. This exciting public art opportunity has been a mammoth undertaking over the past 12 months. Many meetings with head builders, curators, designers, landscapers, engineers and installers have ensured that each artwork has maintained its integrity and is very much recognised as artwork by the artists of the Yarrabah Art Centre.

This is proudly the first major public art presented in Cairns by any artist of Yarrabah. It has been an amazing journey for all involved. Don Macdonald and his team were nothing but accommodating. The team shared with us, all details about the site, the tiles and the processes involved every step of the way – throughout construction. Don’s passion for his work left us all full of confidence and trust for him, including his hard working team. His obvious dedication to his craft is evident and as artists we all understand the time and effort it takes to create something of beauty. Don and his team have gone above and beyond any of our expectations regarding this project and we are very proud to have worked with him and to deliver this artwork to the public.

Yarrabah Arts & Cultural Centre

Shannon Brett, Manager

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