Sculpture artist Ross Byers with one of the clay creations. Picture: NEIL RICHARDSON
``THEY look so cute out there,'' said sculpture artist Ross Byers as he scanned the environmental clay sculptures that hugged the rocky outcrops of Devonport's Mersey Bluff.
Participants in Byers's Tidal Zone workshops have created and installed clay sculptures that mimic urban architecture but use the environment as a major inspiration.
The sculptures will be on display in the natural environment for the public to view for an undetermined time.
``It has been really good because there have been many different people who have come to work on it,'' Byers said.
``I had some ideas of how we could begin, and ideas about what we could do, but a lot of it really depended on who I met as to what tangents we went on when we starting creating.''
Byers said the workshops started with a stint of physical exercise and a stream of consciousness drawing exercise.
``It diffuses a lot of inhibitions that people have . . . They actually felt really good emotionally, and thought they were more present, and their concerns on the outside world really fell away,'' he said.
``Some of the children did mushroom houses, and that was really quite sweet.
``A mother and daughter ended up making a treehouse sculpture that ended up being very, very beautiful.
``Another two people had works that were distinctly architectural, with polished cutting lines.
``I think you really start to see the individual signatures of people.''
Byers said he believed the works would deteriorate with time, and age gracefully.
``They truly are going to return to the earth in a way that won't impose or damage the environment,'' he said.
