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The Barangaroo Delivery Authority will present a major new sculpture event, ‘Sculpture at Barangaroo’, at Sydney’s spectacular Harbour foreshore park, Barangaroo Reserve, from 6 to 21 August 2016.
Free to the public, the temporary exhibition is the first exhibition of its kind to be held at Barangaroo Reserve and will transform the six-hectare headland reserve into an open-air sculpture park to capture the imagination of Sydney and its visitors.
‘Sculpture at Barangaroo’ is presented in partnership with Sculpture by the Sea, and will showcase 14 outdoor artworks by a stellar line-up of 15 Australian artists, including senior, established, emerging and Aboriginal artists.
Exhibiting artists include, Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, Marley Dawson, Lucy Humphrey, Ron Robertson-Swann OAM, Margarita Sampson, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, Yasmin Smith, Marcus Tatton, Ken Unsworth AM, Sally Kidall, Garaywaa Murnawaraga (The Milky Way Sisters: Lyndsay Urquhart, Emily Nichol and Tereasa Trevor, with contributors), and Aunty Deidre Martin with collaborators.
The collection includes eight new works and six existing works that were selected specifically for exhibition.
Highlights include a new work by Garaywaa Murnawaraga (The Milky Way Sisters: Lyndsay Urquhart, Emily Nichol and Tereasa Trevor, with contributors) titled Barangaroo Dreaming. The two-metre high sculpture represents a crinoline – a stiffened hooped petticoat that was worn at the time of early European settlement to make a long skirt stand out – will have eight layers representing eight generations. Construction (Barangaroo 2016) by Marley Dawson includes entrances, tunnels and viewing domes in pine framing allowing the visitor to experience different “framed” views of the city, park and harbour. As a performance element, Marley will continue to work on it for several days after the exhibition opens.
Break the rules and get physical with an artwork as Sangeeta Sandrasegar’s Standing on Stones allows the visitor to walk across its patterned chain of plastic pearls, inviting a tactile experience. The lines of a poem from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali are inscribed across the sculpture. The poem is a dedication to the enduring love and commitment of femaleness and motherhood exemplified so strongly by Barangaroo the woman. As with most of her works, Melbourne-based Sangeeta explores the overlap of cultural structures in one of Sydney’s most important historic sites. Standing on Stones follows the story of Barangaroo, a woman caught between cultures, through to the site’s more recent use as a maritime hub.
Comprised of a seven-metre high chimney, a four-metre high window, a stove built around a fig tree and a campsite, all made from firewood, is Marcus Tatton’s Empirical View. The works represent Tatton’s acknowledgement of the site’s history, the importance of fire for food and warmth, of colonisation and Aboriginal knowledge and wisdom. The window and the chimney represent the ruins of a past life. Look through the window from one side and you see what would have been the coastline pre the First Fleet’s arrival. Viewed from the opposite direction we see a 21st Century cityscape.
‘Sculpture at Barangaroo’ will conclude on Sunday 21 August with a major celebration of the 1st Birthday of Barangaroo Reserve.
A series of free talks by exhibiting artists will be held on site throughout the event and a selection of sculptures will grow and evolve over the 16-day period.
In announcing the event, Barangaroo Delivery Authority CEO, Craig van der Laan, said: “We are very excited to be presenting ‘Sculpture at Barangaroo’, which will showcase once more the amazing public space the NSW Government has created at Barangaroo. Works to be exhibited by the extraordinary team of assembled artists will highlight the textures of Barangaroo’s spectacular sandstone and gardens, drawing on our commitment to sustainability and the significance of Aboriginal history and culture in this special place.”
Chair of the Authority’s Arts and Culture Panel, Gabrielle Trainor, said: “We’re committed to making arts and culture a continual reflection of the spirit of Barangaroo the place, so there’s a broad program of art and cultural events including permanent works and durational art. ‘Sculpture at Barangaroo’ is perfect for our space – and we look forward to seeing how our visitors respond.”
Margarita Sampson, The Grove
Photograph: M. Schofield
