As you drive up the winding forested road leading to Minyon Falls, your eyes fall upon a tremendous six-metre-tall sculpture depicting the legendary Pegasus from ancient Greek mythology, shining in glorious stainless steel.
Visitors stand at the base of the artwork gazing up at the stallion’s eight-metre wingspan, marvelling at the masterful welds and shining glass eyes.
The artwork is the work of local metalworker Brett Allen, a mammoth undertaking that took 1,500 hours to complete.
The final touches are still being applied and, once finished, the sculpture will appear in its full glory at the 2023 Swell Sculpture Festival being held on the Gold Coast next month.
‘This is the largest sculpture I’ve ever made,’ Allen says.
Undertaken with the help of Allen’s assistant, Cass Altman, the sculpture cost $25,000 for the steel alone.
Although Allen usually makes much smaller bronze casts, he agreed to the project after being commissioned by a local winery.
It was a challenging undertaking involving many technical difficulties, but Allen says he enjoyed the process and found it to be ‘mentally stimulating’.
‘I just like making stuff,’ he said.
From a young age, Allen enjoyed working with his hands.
As a child, he lived 500 metres from a scrapyard in Dunoon and would often go down in the afternoons and build bird cages out of scrap to house his many feathered companions.
Throughout the artist’s life, he has always had a fascination with the feathered form, and wings are a recurring motif throughout his oeuvre.
After leaving school he became a motorcycle mechanic, further improving his metalworking and mechanical capabilities.
Though he never pursued a formal art education, Allen has gone on to sell his works all around Australia, becoming a staple of the region, and being featured in a number of prestigious art galleries.
Local photographer Zac Devine has been documenting Brett’s works for many years and worked closely with him throughout the Pegasus project.
‘I genuinely believe that he is a creative genius, and I love capturing the journey that he is on,’ Devine says.
‘We plan to continue working together for years to come, with the aim of showcasing his art to the world.’
The Swell Sculpture Festival will run from September 8–17 at various venues across the Currumbin Valley.
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