Public Toilet Blocks Transformed into Works of Art

After many years of drought, events and tourism has kept the economy ticking and maintained community involvement despite the hardship. The Arts is an integral part of the tourism culture as it celebrates community identity and highlights what makes a town or village unique.

Even the most practical and functional facilities can be transformed by art. The remarkable success of the Graincorp Silo Art Trail, where public artworks have become major tourist attractions across regional Australia, add charm to previously overlooked spaces.

Warwick Art Gallery Director Karina Devine embraced the project by inviting Queensland artists to submit proposals with the broad aim to improve the visual amenity and vibrancy of parks and public spaces with artworks that are interesting, fun and captivating.

“It was very important, when making our selections, that each of the artworks were authentic to the artist’s practice as well as having public appeal,” said Ms Devine, “The assessment panel and I are thrilled with the final choices we made engaging four Southern Downs artists as well as Brisbane artists Emily Devers and Elysha Rei, and Toowoomba artist Karri McPherson

Karri McPherson is a contemporary painter and muralist living in Toowoomba. She is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) at the University of Southern Queensland. Karri’s explores geometric art in relation to the spatial confinements of outdoor locations. These large-scale paintings celebrate the power of geometric art by infusing Australian communities with the timeless beauty of shape, form and colour. Her artworks are very site-specific, responding to unique characters from each location – this allows each work to celebrate a locations’ individuality by drawing on elements from the surrounding environment.

Karri is creating a wrap around artwork for the amenities block at Mile End Park.  She commenced working on her artwork very early on Easter Monday morning and will be working at the site until Wednesday the 24^th of April.

The complete list of artists engaged for the project and locations are:

Karri McPherson – Mile End Park, Warwick

Nikki Woods – Browns Falls Park, Killarney   

Sue Keong – Liberator Park, Leyburn

Louise Tait – Dalrymple Creek Park, Allora

Emily Devers – Australiana Park, Warwick

Kerry Nicholson and Malcolm Nicholson – Victoria Park, Warwick

Elysha Rei – Grafton Street, Warwick

Information about each of the participating artists and the stories about their artwork can be found at Warwick Art Gallery.

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