BROKEN TILE

In 1968 childhood tears flowed, I wanted to go with my parents on a tour to the building site of the Sydney Opera House …I was just too young to go!!  On my parents return from the Opera House tour, my mum reached into her handbag and pulled out a broken tile that she had picked up from the building site.  The tile has a matte finish, it’s one of the two tiles that make up the patterns on the Opera House sails.  Mum explained how she had secretly put the tile into her handbag when no one was looking, I can only imagine how that looked!! The tile became a sacred trophy that sat in our display cabinet for years and no one was ever allowed to touch it.

50 years onward and to my surprise, my mum gave me the tile plus the tour tickets and the brochure from the tour. I had tears of joy and I was so delighted!  I could not believe the tile was now mine.

Inspired by my tile, I decided that I would make this year’s project about the tiles used on the sails. I am drawn to the Sydney Opera House whenever I visit, it’s a visual symphony always putting on a performance, with the beautiful curved shapes and the way the sunlight interplays with the light and dark forming reflections and shadows.