Ceramic Wall Mural was part of a larger offering commissioned from artist-designer Douglas Annand by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) for its new Australian headquarters opened in 1963. It was displayed in the lobby of the former 55 Hunter Street, just metres to the north of its current location.
This wall mural fuses a 1960s ceramic wall and its central relief sculpture with a contemporary reimagining of elements from the original work. The wall mural was part of a larger offering commissioned from artist-designer Douglas Annand by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). It was located in the lobby of P&O's new Australian headquarters at 55 Hunter Street and completed with the building's opening in 1963.
The original Ceramic Wall Mural was the centrepiece of a three-part work that incorporated a paneled glass screen and a suspended sphere (Celestial Globe, 1964), both removed during a 1990s refurbishment of the building. They are now in the collection of Sydney's Museum of Arts & Sciences (Powerhouse). The ceramic tile mural was originally comprised of 600 blue-glazed tiles, awash with sea creatures, ships and fanciful abstract shapes. Around two-thirds of the tiles were salvaged in good condition when the building was demolished in 2017. They are reinstated here in a modified version of the original work.
Photography: Brett Boardman
Annand first began experimenting with glass, bas relief and mural in the 1950s. In researching the technical aspects of the Ceramic Wall Mural work, he spent many weeks experimenting with different glazes in the Wunderlich Industries workshops, famous since the 19th century for fabricating pressed metal ceilings (McDonald, A. 2001. Douglas Annand: The art of life, National Gallery of Australia, p.73).
Annand was a technical perfectionist: each tile is individually designed and hand-crafted.
In addition to furthering Annand's interest in technical innovation, the Ceramic Wall Mural also developed enduring subject matter in his practice. In the 1930s Annand had been commissioned, for example, by yachtsman Alexis Albert to create a Neptune themed sandblasted mirror panel for the bar area of his harbourside Sydney home, Boomerang (McDonald, p. 67). For the P&O commission some decades later, he reintroduced concepts of maritime mythology, also forging a direct link back to the heyday of Art Deco design in Australia.
Photography: Brett Boardman
The original mural was also significant for its pioneering combination of ceramic tile and sculptural elements, and as a culmination of the artist's long career as an influential designer for P&O. The new, reimagined version is around a third smaller than the original - some elements have been replaced with newly cast interpretations of the originals. The central mermaid sculpture, which has been reinstated, was originally surrounded by six smaller half-human, half-fish figures – ‘mer-people’.
Ceramic Wall Mural, 1963, Douglas Annand (1903 – 1976). Commissioned for the P&O Building at 55 Hunter Street. Photo: Rusty Goat Media.
The ‘mer-people’ were designed by Douglas Annand to illustrate the locations served by P&O: America, Africa, Arabia, East Asia, South Asia and the United Kingdom. They portrayed cultural stereotypes that were prevalent in mid-century Australia but could be seen as culturally insensitive in the context of today’s modern society.
To ensure that the spirit of the original Ceramic Wall Mural was largely maintained, artist Stevie Fieldsend, renowned for her innovative approach to working with glass and resin, was commissioned to reimagine the original sculptures in their new socio-cultural context. Working closely with precinct artist Mikala Dwyer and in consultation with the Annand estate, Fieldsend’s glass forms offer a contemporary interpretation of the six smaller ‘mer-people’, which are arranged to reflect the location of the originals in relation to the remaining central figure.
Douglas Annand (1903-1976) was a prominent designer, illustrator and relief sculptor, a key proponent of Australia's Art Deco movement in 1920s Brisbane and later in Sydney. From the 1930s, Annand received commissions from the Orient Steam Navigation Co. Ltd in London. He also designed Australian advertising material for the Orient Line, producing everything from menu cards to posters, and over the years, established himself as a key influencer of the company's corporate image. He consulted on interior design and created painted murals for two P&O cruising liners.
In 1956 Annand was the first Australian artist to combine mural painting with bas relief in a major commission for the University of Melbourne (A Search for Truth, Wilson Hall), a work on which he collaborated with Tom Bass. The same year he combined glass with ceramic tiles in a mural commission for Anzac House in College Street, Sydney. This work typified 1950s Modernism and was cited as a breakthrough in modern glass design (McGrath, R. 1961. Glass in Architecture and Decoration, Architectural Press, London, p. 340).
Stevie Fieldsend is a New Zealand-born, contemporary Australian artist. Creating sculptures and installations, she incorporates a range of media with a particular interest in working with glass. Her work seeks to detail an emotional state, the feeling or bodily memory of a past object or event. In working with materials that embody the process of transmutation such as molten glass, steel and charred wood, a type of performance takes place between artist and material and across time. Fieldsend studied glass at Sydney College of the Arts and JamFactory in Adelaide, and has a Master of Fine Art and a Master of Studio Arts from the University of Sydney. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and been the recipient of numerous art awards. Fieldsend’s work can be found in numerous public and corporate collections, including the federal government’s Artbank and the Macquarie Group Collection.
