Spin Energy Inflatable Artworks

Colourful creations in Crown Street Mall

16-24 Sept, 8am-9pm. Crown Street Mall, Wollongong.

We’re welcoming the world to Wollongong this September. As the world’s best cyclists compete right here in the UCI Road World Championships, we’re rolling out the fun with Spin Fest – a free and all ages community celebration.

Community-designed inflatable artwork

One exciting element of the Spin Fest program is a collection of larger-than-life inflatable sculptures that will take pride of place in Crown Street Mall. Council has partnered with Matthew Aberline and Maurice Goldberg of The Beautiful and Useful Studio to create these artworks. The studio is renowned for their inventive colourful creations that have been displayed in Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Copenhagen and London.

The pieces have been designed through collaborative community workshops with participants combining bold colours and graphic prints to create a truly unique piece. The fun, inflatable elements of the sculpture will spark curiosity during the day, and be illuminated from within at night.

Design process

The Beautiful and Useful Studio hosted four dynamic community workshops in July. Participants explored their creativity through music, movement, mark making and drawing. Over 700 abstract drawings were created, exploring themes of cycling, and Wollongong's unique coastline and escarpment landscapes. The creative marks designed in these workshops were then collaged into unique digital patterns to be printed onto textiles made from recycled PET plastics. Finally, the fabrics were shaped into collections of large inflatable shapes representing land, sea and Spin Energy.

Acknowledgement and thanks go to all the workshop participants for providing their art marks to help create this project, including Year 11 students from Figtree High School, TAFE NSW Wollongong Graphic Design students, and a diverse group of Wollongong locals.

Participants: Jaskiran Kaur, Sharon Pechey, Jennifer Chappell, James Chappell, Lesly Simes, Pia Ryan-Jones, Fan Ng, Kara Agostinho, Tina Pitsavas, Ai Bui, Jason Tran, Carol Barroso, India Barroso, Sharon Mearing, Alanna Askew, Caroline McLaren, Lisa Chesnais, Nicholas Bell, Jenny Woerz, Karen Granger, Mark Broadhurst, Bill O'Donovan, Alinta Maguire, Matthew Evans, Bianca Jovannshi, Tiarne Doughty, Daisy Knight, Elizabeth Davies, Joe Gleeson, Shannon Ward, Caitlin Colless, Joshua Blackwell, Stephanie Bosilovski, Georgia Braddock, Cohan Britt-Holeck, Ceon Choi, Maile Filson, Lynette Ma, Sophie Price, Payten Rajaratnam, Emily Stephens, Monika Temelkov, Anastasia Zivanovic, Haley Disaro, Kate Brewer.

When + where:

The pieces will be on display from 15th to 24th September, from 8am-9pm daily.

They will be located in the outdoor mall near the stage - at the corner of Crown Street Mall and Church Street.

Learn more:

Gear up for Spin Fest

Spin Fest is proudly produced by Wollongong City Council.