A revolutionary moving chocolate sculpture exhibition was held in Newcastle, NSW, recently, which aimed to push the boundaries of culinary artistry.

An initiative developed by Skills for Trades, the exhibition – named Chocol’art – represented a collision of culinary expertise and artistic vision.

The expertise of the team, which included Fivespice Creative videographer Shane Williams, pastry chef and chocolatier Dean Gibson as well as industrial designer Jon Pryor was on show.

The exhibition included three major components: an interactive moving chocolate art installation featuring seven suspended chocolate seagulls with 1m wingspans that were flying through the projected backdrop of footage over Newcastle beaches, a public-driven wheel animating a large chocolate seagull that encouraged visitor participation, and the centrepiece that was a giant chocolate sea eagle sculpture with a 2m wingspan that was suspended from the ceiling with a fish in its talons.

Dean said the exhibition represented a perfect blend of culinary expertise and artistic vision.

“We’ve pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with chocolate, creating an immersive experience,” he said.

Shane added the trio were excited to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience their hometown of Newcastle.

“The Chocol’art Exhibition not only demonstrated the highest level of skills in chocolate artistry and design, it was also created to inspire and create opportunities for the next generation of culinary professionals to further develop their skills under the collaborative mentorship of Australia’s own world-renowned chocolate master Dean Gibson and award-winning industrial designer Jon Pryor,” he said.

The installation included a number of seagulls as well as an eagle clutching a fish

The sculptures were all created from repurposed chocolate donated by sponsor F Mayer/Callebaut Australia.

Shane said John had created the moulds for the seagulls that moved, while the sea eagle mould was actually part of the Coupe de Monde-winning entry.

“Jon designed that one,” he said.

“He’s got a different approach because he’s got so much knowledge in industrial design and physics.

“Then Dean’s got the experience with the chocolate and the artistic side of things. He knew how much pressure the chocolate could take, where it’s going to break the easiest and how to shape it in the way we needed to.”

Beyond the Chocol’art exhibition, the event also served as a launch for the Skills Collider – Skills for Trade’s dedicated creative space.

At Skills Collider, the mission is to inspire future industry talent while also encouraging knowledge sharing and elevating the public appreciation of both the baking and patisserie trades.

“[This space] means we can now get really creative and play around with some ideas without having to pack up each time we do one of these projects,” Shane said.

“A big part of this was about attracting future talent to the industry, and demonstrating what can be done.

“It’s one thing to be a baker or a really good pastry chef, but then how do you get to the level where you’re learning about sculptures? Because you won’t be doing that regularly in a workplace.”

A number of apprentices helped out, including William and Josh Nickl from Gumnut Patisserie

Shane said the work was a continuation from the Iron Shark project he, Dean and Jon did back in 2022, which set the world record for the most moving pieces in a chocolate sculpture and the largest kinetic chocolate sculpture of an animal ever created in the world.

“When we did the Iron Shark we had all these young pastry chefs coming in and asking if they could help. We thought that was really cool,” he said.

“[This time] people have visited and stayed for the day to help on some of these different projects so there’s a mentoring aspect to it too. You get to work with people that are highly skilled and getting the experience – and you get to experiment and play.

“We want to continue to pass on these skills and knowledge – that’s the key of what we’re doing here. We really hope the industry will think this is really cool, get behind us and support us and, if they do, they’ll get it all back in spades.”