Bangalow based architect Dominic Findley Jones has teamed up with artist Lauren Brincat for their ‘Best Time Ever’, a 23 metre long steel and timber stairway to heaven. (I’m not convinced it’s long enough to get you there). This project is one of three which will grace the Splendour In The Grass festival in Woodford this year.

Splendid Art is an initiative sponsored and supported by Splendour in the Grass, Arts Northern Rivers, NORPA, the Lismore Regional Gallery and the Federal Government

‘I closed my eyes and saw a massive staircase rising up from the crowd at Splendour,’ says Lauren. ‘As it continued to elevate and fade into the clouds it really was a stairway joining heaven and earth. It had to be made.’

The stairway to heaven’s title soon became the ‘Best Time Ever’. The work captures an essential feeling of wonder and possibility. Taking the form of a huge stairway that is also a gigantic sun dial, the work is a catalyst for the imagination to run wild.

A work of art that is in its very nature a symbol of aspiration and a tribute to the time they are having at Splendour in the Grass, ‘Best Time Ever’  is a large sculptural piece that will be seen from the approach to the festival site, but up close will reveal another face – a clock face.

‘This project presented an opportunity to work with an artist I like and whose work I find challenging,’ says Dominic. ‘As an architect, I find great pleasure in rationalising a crazy idea – of breaking it down, smoothing it out – figuring out how it might actually happen. Best Time Ever is one such big, crazy idea.’

Brincat and Jones found local steel fabricator Neil Mathie and carpenter Richard Smith of ARC Joinery who could appreciate their vision.