Quinns Rocks sculptor leaving mark across Perth

A QUINNS Rocks sculptor is leaving his mark in sites across Perth, including an Alkimos school.

Mehdi Rasulle has created public artworks for numerous locations and recently caught up with the Times at one of his local collections.

He created five stand-alone sculptures and four wall-mounted designs, all with a sea theme, for Alkimos Beach Primary School.

Year 4 students met the artist during his visit and asked him questions about how long it took to create each sculpture, what tools he used and where he got inspiration.

“Each artwork relates to the location of the school – when I did this, the subject was beachside living,” Rasulle said.

“It had to be something to do with Alkimos and the wreck.”

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His anchor and chain sculptures are at the school entry, while three sandstone sea life sculptures and four wall pieces dot the school grounds.

Rasulle said he would draw his ideas first, often inspired by nature or history, then make a small model, which usually took about three hours.

He would then spend several weeks making the actual sculptures, such as the larger-than-life hermit crab, turtle and seal at the Alkimos school.

“I use big electric tools to make all the big sculptures and do the details with a hammer and chisel,” he said. Rasulle is originally from Afghanistan and moved to Perth in 2001 when he was 16, but he had started making sculptures when he was about the same age as the Year 4 students.

“My family are all artists,” he said.

“The first one I did was a little rabbit and someone bought it, so I kept making them.”

Rasulle is working on sculptures for another school in Wandi and has created pieces for the Burswood Stadium and Perth Children’s Hospital.

Recently he finished creating two Anzac sculptures for St George’s Terrace and a few years ago he created a dinosaur that stands at Kingsway Reserve.

Rasulle said he was also creating a piece for the Koondoola Community Centre and does restoration work on old sculptures.

The father of three said he liked to make robust, educational pieces that children could interact with, such as the sundial and Southern Cross navigation map at Clarkson Primary School.

“I learned so much by doing that sort of art – the amount of maths going through it is phenomenal. If it’s artwork for kids, they can touch it or climb on it,” he said.

The sculptor said he also had an engineering workshop where he worked on mining equipment and his own inventions.

He hopes to build a gallery and workshop in Neerabup that other artists can use as well.

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