Airport Art: I Know What I Like...

Inspiration for these posts can come from strange places. I’ve just returned from Canberra and while coming back through their airport, I noticed something that I wouldn’t immediately call art but after a moment, I changed my mind and declared it, to myself, the best piece of airport artwork I’ve ever seen.

(that’s a teaser and I’ll share what it was at the end)

Is Airport Art Functional?

This morning’s “art” encounter was initially just going to be a quick LinkedIn post. Then I thought I’d take photos of the other art works in the terminal. And then I was reminded of a realisation I had a couple of months ago while developing a lecture on terminal design.*

In preparing that lecture, I did a fair amount of research and reading as my previous knowledge of terminal design wasn’t really what I would call tertiary-lecturer level. I mean, I did airport planning back in the day and I’ve worked on minor terminal upgrades and had to deal with plenty of issues as an operations manager, but I like to be prepared, so I did some reading.

Within all the discussion of movements, flow, control, space and light, a relatively short paragraph popped out at me.

Public art is, in many ways, a means by which space orientation can be reinforced (see Figure 9.8). The use of free-standing sculpture in concourse areas can establish a point of reference, particularly if it is located at, a crossroads in the passenger flow. Similarly, a mural attached to a wall can give that wall extra significance in the perception of interior routes. Major volumes in the terminal can be landmarked by a combination of light, structural expression and art. In combination, the elements should leave passengers in little doubt about the hierarchies of route and space in the terminal.

Edwards (2005). The Modern Airport Terminal: New Approaches to Airport Architecture

I hadn’t really thought about art works in this context.

As part of my lecture, I thought I would describe and critique the design of a real-world terminal. And by virtue of my work in Qatar, I had a bunch of photos of the terminal at the Hamad International Airport. So, I started uploading the photos, and then it became so obvious…

The bear is a landmark, an enormous and iconic point of reference. I literally had the realisation as I was delivering the lecture. I really enjoyed the feeling of this moment. Genuinely learning something new about something so familiar.

So, What Do I Like?

Back to today’s encounter. Those familiar with Canberra Airport might know which piece of “art” I finally noticed today and wish to declare the best I’ve ever seen.

Of course…

It’s a plane.

Nestled down the end of the check-in area was this beautiful, early to mid-20th Century installation. It is a Lockheed Hudson Mark IV Bomber and you can also find online (and below) a cool time lapse of the aircraft being trucked out and installed at the airport.

* While the blogathon was exhausting, my lack of subsequent blog posts has been the result of starting two new jobs - one as a casual lecturer in Airport Management and the other, my “day job” with Wisk.