New artwork inspired by nature brightens up power box in Horsham

Published on 19 October 2020

Sisters Lani and Freya Jones have revitalised a Powercor box on the corner of Horsham’s Firebrace and Pynsent streets, adorning it with motifs of local flora and birds.  
 
The creative duo, aged 15 and 12, submitted their design as part of Horsham Rural City Council’s Art Box call-out and were selected to paint their work on the box by the Public Art Advisory Committee.  

After painting flowers on their bin as part of Councils ‘Isolation Bin-spiration: paint your bin’ project earlier this year, they decided to do flowers again, but with more detail this time. 

In coming up with the final design, Lani and Freya decided to make something that represented the local area and drew inspiration from a recent book ‘Gariwerd Colours’ by local ecologist Steffen Schultz.  

“There are so many flowers and plants in that book, so there’s heaps of different types to choose from” says Freya.  

Their final design includes native wattles, mistletoe flowers and red-tailed black cockatoos.  

While painting, Lani and Freya were encouraged by passers-by who stopped to comment on their work.   

“We find it exciting to think that our paintings will be admired by the people of Horsham for years to come” says Lani.  

“It’s pretty cool to being able to do artwork that everyone sees and that stays up in public for a while” adds Freya.  

When asked if it was a harmonious collaboration, Lani admits “sometimes we wanted to do different things, but … most of the time we worked it out.”  

Lani and Freya were supported by their parents, artist Dave Jones and teacher Jill McLeod to realise their vision for the work.  

Council would like to also acknowledge and thank Powercor for its support of the project.

Horsham Rural City’s Art Box will also see the delivery of a large-scale mural at Jos Lane, and some smaller NBN utility boxes covered in artwork later this year.  

Along with bringing more art and creative activation to Horsham’s streetscape, the project also aims to lessen the impact and cost of graffiti removal at specific sites.  

Pictured: Freya Jones and Lani Jones working on their art box painting