Solar Net, 1990. Electro-nickel over acrylic.
Image copyright Effy Alexakis 2002.

Solar Net was originally inspired from the illustrations of mass curving space-time. The paths of cosmic forces lead us through invisible, yet indescribable beauty.

gallery - catalogue - page one

"I never copy Nature. Although my work does refer to Nature."

Click here for Acknowledgments & Foreword

My father was a keen handyman and when I was a toddler, say 3 or 4, I'd pick up the pieces of wood left over when he was working, and try to make things. I still have a scar on my hand where a knife slipped. I was always a bit impatient.

I used to take pieces of wood and hammer on wheels or whatever. Really they were sculptures. It seems like only yesterday ... As I grew towards my teens at Sydney Boys' High School, I made boats and ships and aeroplanes, and gave them to friends. Mainly they were in wood: there were no plastics in those days.

During the war, there were no metals either; they were all used for the war effort. I made painted wooden ships which were a substitute for Dinky toys. I sold them at the newsagent's shop, where they didn't last very long: there was a demand for them. I wish I'd kept them. I feel proud of them now, more than I did then, when I was just earning pocket money.

About 1942 I was contacted by Sir Frank Packer as someone who made model aeroplanes, and asked to join an outfit called the Volunteer Air Observer Corp. There was no radar in those days, and we made model aeroplanes on a volunteer basis and used them to educate people about the appearance of enemy aircraft.

It was me and Lloyd Rees; we formed a team. And there was a girl, Marnie Monk - most unusual to find a girl making model aircraft. There was another volunteer organisation for the Navy, to educate people about ships. Robert Klippel was doing that.

All these model aeroplanes were hanging from the ceiling of the penthouse in the Astor in Macquarie Street. They were on a scale of 6 feet to the inch. I still have some of them - and a little model aircraft I made for myself on a different scale, a very tiny thing.

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