Fresh artwork brightens up city building sites - City of Sydney

Ten new large-scale artworks will soon adorn protective fencing around the city’s busiest construction zones thanks to the City of Sydney’s creative hoarding program.

In a bid to enliven Sydney streets, developers building in high traffic areas are required to cover their hoardings with art by a living Australian artist or relevant historical images. Construction companies can use artworks licensed by the City of Sydney for free.

This latest round of selected artworks was chosen from hundreds of submissions. While there were no limitations on artwork concepts, artists could choose to respond to three themes - Eora Journey: Recognition in the public domain, LGBTIQA+ pride and expansive greening.

“What a fantastic way for local artists to showcase their work loudly and proudly on busy roads and intersections, injecting creativity into our everyday lives,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“Not only does the program brighten streets and make the city a more pleasant place to visit and move through, it provides work for artists, many of whom have struggled to exhibit through the pandemic.

“We’ve picked beautifully artistic pieces that are sure to inspire, delight and engage Sydneysiders as they pass by and I can’t wait to see them installed across the city.”

Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding’s artwork Colouring Memory is inspired by his childhood in Redfern, surrounded by iron lacework on the balconies of the area’s terrace houses.

Reimagining Victorian fences as colourful shields, Indigenous plants overlay old European motifs as a reclaiming of space and sharing of First Nations history.

“These objects were in our everyday life. I colour them through my connection to place, and memories of the past,” Dennis Golding said.

Heavy Light by artist Andrew Christie and Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre, an organisation that runs dance and theatre training for people with disability, combines digital technology and performance.

Dancers created avatars of themselves that express the thrills and tensions of the stage, the importance of visibility and the weight of self-confrontation.

“We settled on natural forms for the avatars, meaning each dancer could take ownership of a specific element while feeling continually connected to the whole. While affirmative and colourful, the imagery also speaks to the unassuming power that comes with admitting feelings of inadequacy or sharing your desires – it gives others license to do the same,” Andrew Christie said.

This is the third round of the successful creative hoardings program. So far, the City of Sydney has licensed 30 high-quality contemporary Australian artworks that have been used on more than 220 hoardings across the local area over the last five years.

Visit cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/cultural-support-funding/creative-hoardings-program to check out the 10 newly selected artworks and to find out more about the creative hoardings program.