If the Venetian tiles didn’t glisten in the sunlight, the newly erected mosaic of Sir John Monash might go unnoticed.
The artwork in a Sunshine laneway is modest in size – and the thousands of little tiles that have gone into it are mostly hues of grey.
But despite its subtlety, this is an arresting piece that stops most passers-by.
It’s the first of about 20 tiled mosaics to be made by artist Sankar Nadeson and installed around Brimbank.
The joint Brimbank council, Sunshine RSL and Sunshine Business Association project has been timed to coincide with the WW1 Anzac centenary 2014-18.
Sunshine RSL secretary Lesley Twidle said the project aimed to give Brimbank residents a greater awareness of the country’s military heroes.
“It’s been set up so that people in Sunshine would know about the Australians who went to war and what they did for our country,” she said.
“And it looks like a photo, it’s absolutely brilliant,” she said of Mr Nadeson’s rendering of the Australian military commander and civil engineer Sir John Monash.
The artist has many hats, one being a community development co-ordinator. In layman’s terms, this means he engages people and gets them involved in the learning behind the art.
“My idea about art is that it’s something that can service the community,” he said. “By putting art work in front of people, you say to them ‘you are worth it’ – you engage people.”
The Sir John Monash mosaic in McDonald Lane is part of an art history walk through Sunshine that will use a geolocated website to provide background on each piece.
