If Barcelona is famous for Gaudi’s astonishing architecture, then Pamela Irving’s crazy baroque courtyard should put Bentleigh on the Melbourne tourist map. The wild and wonderful space is between the gallery and her studio in Patterson Road. Inspired by the extraordinary mosaiced environments Irving has found in places as diverse as Tuscany, Chandigarh, Chartres and Los Angeles, the artist has sought to create a precinct of her own.
When the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand held an exhibition in her gallery, Irving mentored five of the participants and, before long, the first wall was smothered in a variety of “bird” tiles. Mosaics made by students from McKinnon and Sandringham secondary colleges, and others created by passersby on trestle tables in the street, covered a second wall. On top of the walls is an over-the-top array of ceramic birds that the artist has collected from op shops, garage sales and friends who keep an eye out for finds they know will be appreciated by “the Queen of Kitsch”.
Her family was particularly pleased with themselves this Mother’s Day when they presented her with a large ornamental swan. This giant now lords it over an arrangement of china swans while her impressive collection of flying ducks looks on. A word of warning before you visit the bathroom – an Alfred Hitchcock experience awaits you as myriad birds gather menacingly in the small, enclosed space. By way of contrast, Irving’s handcrafted birdbaths are a delight – she utilises bits of old china to create the dear little birds and flowers and Bisazza tiles, the cream of Italian ceramics, to complete these collector pieces.
Irving has worked as artist-in-residence at many schools – MLC, Scotch College, Camberwell Grammar, Wesley, Firbank and St Leonard’s, to name a few. With Irving’s fondness for “kids’ stuff”, assigning her to decorate the old Luna Palace (the dodgem car building) at Luna Park was an inspired decision. She is now working, with two assistants, on 25 metres of mosaic that will be revealed in December, when the amusement park celebrates 98 years of fun for kids of all ages.
While birds dominate her courtyard, Irving loves all animals, and it was a larrikin dog that attracted her first public commission. You’ll find her original bronze dog sculpture, Larry Latrobe, in Collins Street.
When I say original, that’s not quite accurate, as the first Larry was jackhammered out of the footpath in 1995, three years after it was installed. Sadly, he has never returned.
Since his conception in the Irving’s home in Caulfield, Larry’s celebrity status has steadily grown, from the City Square in Melbourne to the Shepparton Art Gallery, where a 3.2-metre-high version (known as Louis) guards the entrance, to Russia.
There are no less than seven “Larrys”, decorated in traditional needlepoint designs, now housed in St Petersburg and Moscow. He even has his own Wikipedia entry. I’m looking forward to revisiting Larry next year after Irving has delivered the keynote address to the Society of American Mosaic Artists’ conference in Texas in February next year. \