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Printed Glass: Perth Airport Central Station
The thousands of travellers transiting through Perth's new Airport Central Station are treated to two large-scale public artworks influenced by the Noongar people's relationship to travel and the natural world. Brought to life using ImagInk digital ceramic printing and manufactured on 13.52mm Low Iron glass, the artworks span over 225sqm.
The new station is part of Perth's recently opened $1.86 billion METRONET Forrestfield-Airport Link, which runs along an 8.5-kilometre rail line connecting the airport with the city's eastern suburbs. The train link sits within Noongar boodja (country), which spans southwest Western Australia. The project created various forms of public art to link it to its local community, tell stories of cultural heritage and tie stations to their local environment. Global engineering and architecture firm GHD provided the design coordination and architecture, led by GHD’s integrated design studio GHDWoodhead and Weston Williamson + Partners.
Renowned local artists Anne Neil and John Walley, a Whadjuk Noongar Descendant, collaborated on artworks for the project. The station's other artworks features a sculptural wall composition inspired by birds and flight – birds’ figure prominently in traditional Noongar lore.
"The Forrestfield-Airport Link project allowed us to create highly visible stations that feature inspiring spaces to provide an attractive ‘whole of journey’ experience to maximise the utilisation of public transport. These landmark transport facilities will transform the local urban environment and become a catalyst for the future development of housing, jobs, and community services in the eastern suburbs of Perth.
RICARDO KIPERMAN
GHDWoodhead Studio Director
Delivering an accurate, cost effective reproduction of artwork while ensuring safety and longevity
Renowned artists Anne Neil and John Walley, a Whadjuk Noongar Descendant, collaborated on artworks inspired by the idea of journey relating to Noongar people, and birds and flight. Their collaboration respectfully wove these artwork layers together, creating abstract integrated compositions describing the Noongar connection to river and estuary waters, and the journeys taken by Noongar people to connect with their traditional lands and spiritual obligations.
Having worked previously with Cooling Brothers ImagInk printed glass, Anne was aware of the design process to translate artworks to digital files for printing, and the colour gamut required to reproduce and represent artworks faithfully.
Powered by DipTech DX-3 technology, ImagInk is a direct-to-glass printing process. Containing sub-micron glass particles and inorganic pigments, ImagInk ceramic inks have superior light fastness and are guaranteed for 25 years against fading. Once printed, ImagInk is toughened as a grade A safety glass.
Used in an overhead glazing application at Central Station. the toughened printed glass was combined into a 13.52mm custom laminate to meet the Australian Standards for overhead glazing requirements.
A Lacobel Oyster White ceramic coating on the rear of the glass provides a cost effective approach to achieving a block colour background. The artwork was printed on surface #2, and laminated using an SGP structural interlayer.
Lacobel T provides a block colour backing for ImagInk digital ceramic printing
With the artwork featuring a limited colour palette, varying printing coverage and a requirement to obscure the wall behind, a block colour backing solution was required. As an alternative to painting or digitally printing the backing, Lacobel T is a painted glass range that can be cut and heat-treated directly by the processor. This greatly streamlines the production process and shortens delivery times.
The artwork was printed on surface #2, and laminated to an Oyster White Lacobel T panel with an SGP structural interlayer. Once laminated, the Lacobel coating shows through the clear areas of glass inbetween the printed artwork. This flexible approach to colour layering allows artists and designers to create a huge range of colour options, and achieve unique depth effects with varying glass thickness. The custom laminate also ensures that the panel will remain intact in the event of breakage.
"I knew the ImagInk process would capture exactly the artwork's intent - it's a proven process for public art projects in Perth and around Australia. Importantly, it also ticked all the boxes of colour accuracy, longevity and safety"
ANNE NEIL
