March 17th
Sydneysiders can enter an underground world of experimentation and creativity at Taylor Square this month, when Sydney’s oldest public toilets are re-opened for the fourth and final Taylor Square Art project.
Part-mobile printing press, part-think tank and part-underground society, A Leaf from the Book of Cities, by award-winning art collective Makeshift, will be held alongside the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square every Saturday until the end of March.
At ground level, the disused women’s convenience will house a workshop where creative thinkers from across Sydney can come together to discuss their ideas for building a more sustainable future for our city.
Downstairs in the old men’s facilities, a mobile printing press will turn these ideas into limited-edition artworks that will be distributed to passers-by on the last weekend.
A Leaf from the Book of Cities asks what kind of city we want Sydney to become, and how we can work together to make it happen. The work is one of four projects dealing with sustainability that make up the ‘We Make This City’ program of participatory public art curated by COFA’s National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA). More information here.
March 17th
ReKindling Venus: In Plain Sight by renowned immersive installation artist Lynette Wallworth creates a virtual porthole to coral reefs around the world. It is part of the City of Sydney’s temporary public art program at Taylor Square and consists of interactive posters at Taylor Square and a glowing lightbox at Customs House. The posters and lightbox are interactive and trigger a free mobile phone application connecting viewers to a virtual reef that gives continually updating data on elevated sea surface temperatures for the world’s coral reefs.
Coral reefs are fragile environments in which even slight changes in temperature can affect the balance and health of the entire system. Lynette Wallworth has collaborated with coral fluorescence specialist to develop the work, and is the first stage of a visionary project planned to culminate with the next Transit of Venus in June 2012.
The work is one of four projects dealing with sustainability that make up the ‘We Make This City’ program of participatory public art curated by COFA’s National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA). More information here.
Rekindling Venus: In Plain Sight will be at Taylor Square and Customs House until May 2012.
To start the journey, download the free app RKV Corals to your iPhone (3GS ,4,5) or Android smart phone.
The work can also be accessed at www.rekindlingvenus.com
March 17th
This beautiful little fountain in Macquarie Place Park was designed by Gerald Lewers and installed in 1960 as a memorial to Scottish-born Australian sculptor John Christie Wright, who was killed on the battlefields in France during the World War I. Gerald Lewers was a pioneer of modern sculpture who designed a number of fountains around Australia. He was commissioned by Jean Hague-Smith to create the John Christie Wright memorial fountain in Sydney, the first fountain donated to the City of Sydney under the philanthropic Sydney Fountains Committee.
The fountain was relocated within the park in the 1980s, in a setting that was not sympathetic to the original intent. The restoration project has taken a number of years and included cleaning, repairing and reinforcing the fountain; relocating it to a nearby garden bed in a setting similar to the original; new paving, landscaping and plants around the fountain and new sandstone seats. The City consulted closely with Gerald lewers’ daughters; and worked with Terragram Landscape Architects, Wardrope and Carroll (who worked on the original fabrication in 1960), Wilson Pedersen and Water Features Australia.
March 12th
Over 400 film and cycle fans attended the pedal-powered screenings over three nights. Taylor Square was transformed on Friday and Saturday and the wet-weather venue (at our fantastic new space on 1a Burton Street) was put to use on Sunday evening. We are grateful to everyone who participated, the project is a great demonstration of collaboration and team work – without the participants, there would be no screening. We are particularly grateful to young George, who pedalled without a break from start to finish on Saturday night.
Cycle-in Cinema is the third of project in We Make This City, the diverse program of participatory works and events curated by COFA. For more information, see the project page or visit the website of the magnificent Magnificent Revolution here.
