Claremont underwent a 48hr creative overhaul this weekend as the PUBLIC 2016 Platform Festival took over the town centre! PUBLIC 2016 is a festival of art, urban activation and creative conversation which runs annually, thanks to the guys at FORM who devised the program to creatively engage and transform Western Australia.

Claremont’s Bayview Terrace and Lemon Lane were transformed into an interactive wonderland of creativity by twenty-three teams of Perth’s brightest minds – artists, sculptors, architects, engineers, designers and even local retailers! The innovative, engaging and playful installations lined the streets (the best one would bag a sweet $20K BTW), surrounded by live music, food trucks and an awesome pop up bar for the official opening party last night – which was such fun!

Okay, I admit that the main PUBLIC 2016 pull for me was going to see the stunning new street art by my favourite Perth urban artist, Anya Brock. Anya transformed the PUBLIC 2016 festival hub last week with her signature vibrant birds just outside the Bayview Terrace entrance of Claremont Quarter. Her pop up installation will continue to be celebrated after PUBLIC 2016 for the exciting ‘Art Transforming Claremont’ event which runs until 21 April 2016. 

After photographing (and totally crushing on) Anya’s latest handiwork, we wandered around the installations and I was super taken with ‘The Language of Flowers’. This incredible, pretty installation was created by Marina Lommerse, Hayley Curnow, Thomas Rowe, Jessica Richardson and Jack Holmes – in association with Monde Design Store and The Lane Bookshop. The installation was located in a laneway, with hundreds of different sized beautiful paper flowers and cards dangling from the ceiling – in a whole kaleidoscope of colour. Taking inspiration from the Victorian Era, when floriography became a way to convey messages, the main concept was expressing emotion and feeling through flowers. Each flower had a dedicated card explaining its meaning and featuring quotes from iconic public figures, artists and designers, including Anne Brontë, Christian Dior and Dr. Seuss. Literally ‘saying it with flowers’… So incredibly quaint, breathtaking and gorgeous – I couldn’t stop taking pictures! 

PUBLIC 2016 runs until 17 April at various locations around Perth – try and check it out if you can!

WEARING: DRESS: Witchery // SANDALS: Dune London
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: KATIE REBEKAH