22 Aug: Vol 24, #12 - UWA News staff magazine - The University of ...

10 UWAnewsWorking together creates supportA simple solution to a problem in a Universitylibrary has been an excellent example of stafffrom different areas working together.The Education, Fine Arts and Architecture (EDFAA) Libraryhas hundreds of big heavy art and architecture books that usedto fall over when somebody took a nearby book off the shelf.Straightening the shelves was becoming a problem and causingphysical pain to library staff.The problem was identified by EDFAA library staff CaroleDuffil and Judy Smith; they asked advice from Safety andHealth Office (SHO) occupational therapist Averil Riley, whodid some research and came up with an idea; staff at FacilitiesManagement, particularly tradesman, welding expert and sculptorOne of the world’s great artshows will feature a sculptureby UWA staff member LenZuks.Len’s steel sculpture of a horse andrider has been chosen to be part of theBeijing Biennale, China’s biggest and mostimportant art exhibition, opening nextmonth.He has been an artist and sculptor allhis life but says he also enjoys his work asa tradesman for the Facilities Management(FM) maintenance workshop.“It’s hard to make a living as an artist,but I don’t do it for the money, I do itbecause I love it,” he said.Len was at the exhibition of Sculpturesby the Sea at Cottesloe early this year atthe same time as a Chinese delegation.“They were talking about acquiring artfor the Beijing Olympics, so they couldline the road between the airport andthe Olympic Village with installations. Ihappened to have photographs of someLen Zuksexplains hisdesign tolibrarian JudySmithAn Aussie icon in Chinaof my work with me and showed themto them. They immediately chose oneof my pieces, then returned to Beijingwhere a committee decided on a differentpiece, then asked me to exhibit it in theBiennale,” he said.“It was one of those hugely luckycircumstances.”Len’s horse and rider sculpture is 1.8metres tall, 1.8 metres long and about ametre wide. He calls it Duffer McCreedyafter a fictitious iconic Australian outbackcharacter.“He was a hard-working but illiteratestation hand, who met a teacher whocame to the station, learnt to read andwrite, fell in love with the teacher andmarried her, but didn’t quite overcomesome of his early ways.“The police were after him for somepetty thieving, so he ran away to war,served in Gallipoli and returned hometo make a lot of money on the land, thenbecame a philanthropist.“It’s the story of our land ofTHE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA • 22 AUGUST 2005Len Zuks (see also below), played around with the idea and, aftera few prototypes, and the help of Peter Norgard in the electricalengineering workshop, came up with the solution; and Libraryadministration manager Annie Macnab initiated the project andfound funding for it.Judy Smith explained that while most library books weighedabout 500 grams, EDFAA’s big books could weigh up to fourkilograms. The staff were getting repetitive use strain fromcontinually sorting the books, which were held up only by otherbooks. Averil Riley contacted other art libraries and found onesolution at Curtin University of Technology: a shelf support thatcould be attached to existing shelves, to take the load of heavybooks.Len Zuks considered the Curtin model, then thought of abetter way to make the support, using less material but in athicker gauge so the extra strength gave more support.“Len also ensured that the edges weren’t sharp and they wereset back from the edge of the shelf, so nobody would scratch orgraze themselves on it,” said Ms Smith.About 600 shelf supports are needed and the FM workshophas produced and installed about 200 so far. They haveoutsourced the cutting of the zinc-plated steel supports as FMdoes not have a machine capable of large numbers of repetitions,and Len is welding them together.Ms Riley said she encouraged staff who identified manualhandling hazards to reportthem to SHO.opportunity, and it inspired me to createthis vision of a proud man on his horse,”Len said.He doesn’t know of any other WesternAustralian artists who have been invitedto exhibit at the Biennale, where he hopessomebody will buy Duffer McCreedy.Len is currently working on a life-sizedsteel sculpture of an Aboriginal man. “Thebody’s done but I have to think of a storyfor him before I do his arms and hands,which will dictate what he’s doing with hisarms,” he said.Len has been working at UWA for 16years, first in the physics workshop, thenfor FM. He is taking leave to go to Chinafor the Biennale, where he will attendseminars and workshops with otherinternational artists.