‘The Red Kite’ – Al Phemister – bid is at $100

Al Phemister  works with industrial waste materials and discarded objects to create organic and natural forms.

Above is an image of Al with The Red Kite.

His art ranges from the small to the extremely large. He has a passion for utilitarian objects and a deep commitment to recycling.

Though he has a great love for the environment, he has always seen waste as an opportunity rather than rubbish.

‘I believe that creativity is a fundamental human trait that should be nurtured and celebrated,’ Al said. ‘I fell into art by chance.

He and his wife, Sarz, a working artist, were in a nursery and fell in love with a metal pyramid. They found themselves talking about it after, wishing their budget would allow them to buy it, thinking it would be great with a bird at the top. Back at their house, which Al was slowly transforming from a little two room cottage to a tiny, enchanted chateau in a gorgeous wild garden Sarz was developing, he went to his shed and after some thought, created a metal pyramid. Then he said to his wife, ‘You’re the artist. Make a bird to go on the top.’

The above image is actually work done by a participant in one of Al’s fabulous trash to art workshops.

But Al’s mind began playing with the idea of how a bird could be made from wire. The bird he crated and attached to the pyramid stands in his garden to this day. He has been a working artist ever since.

Al exhibited his dandelions this year as part of Swell at Currumbin Beach. 

‘For me art is about process. You think about how to shape your idea – what materials you should use, then step by step, you do it. You can do anything if you break it down into steps in a process.’

Asked what art he had been drawn to as a child, Al said, ‘For me it was music. Partly I think because I was drawn to working with other people to create something. Community, cooperation, helping one another, sharing skills and ideas.’

Al’s hugely popular 6 hour Waste to Art workshops take place by invitation all over Australia. Don’t miss out if you have the chance to attend one.

The workshops came about because it troubled me that as a society, we have developed attitudes that promote waste, and an indifference towards the environmental impacts,’ Al said.

‘I had the idea of bringing groups of people together to explore their creativity and create artwork from discarded waste materials, The aim of the workshops is to encourage people to look at things through a new lens. Participants come away with new skills and a new perspective  about what waste is and what can be art.

‘I want them to feel they are part of the solution.’

You can learn more about Al by visiting his website at

https://alphemister.com or visit his upcoming exhibitions Artisans in the Garden 2024 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, from October 25-November 3.

Asked about kites, he laughed. ‘I remember I made more than one kite as a kid. You used to get them in kit form – a piece of plastic and a couple of bits of dowel you would stick in the back. I ran and ran but I never managed to get one single kite in the air.’

When Isobelle mentioned the kite project to him, asking if he would do one, lamenting the flimsiness of kites available on the internet, the expense of good kites – she would need 30 – Al immediately began to think of process.

‘I was gearing up for a found materials project I was setting up in Picton, and I thought I would make a kite. Given the charity Isobelle was raising funds for, I decided to make a red kite. I showed it to her when it was on display locally in Yass, before I presented it to her for her auction. 

She was tremendously excited because aside from loving the kite, when Al described how he had made it, she decided to make the kites herself, using Al’s method. Al being Al, he created a carboard prototype, and she spent a day at his house, working with he and Sara to make 18 kites. But that’s a story told elsewhere on this site.

Al’s kite is THE red kite, and appropriately enough, is the first to be revealed on the Hope Flies auction site, since it is the prototype for all of the kites, its maker instrumental in the making of every other kite that will be revealed. In that sense, his art is the basis for every other kite you will see revealed day by day, for the next 29 days.

ends