Artist opportunities
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Creative hoardings program
Aims to transform the visual impact of construction sites in our area.
The creative hoardings program provides opportunities for artists to showcase their work on a large scale in very visible locations.
The program was created in response to community demand for more street art to enliven the streets of Sydney and bring creativity into the everyday.
Developers with construction sites in high traffic areas must cover their hoardings in art by a living Australian artist, or historical images relevant to the area where the hoarding is located. Developers can commission their own artist, or they can use artworks licensed by the City of Sydney, free of charge.
To date we’ve run 2 national call-outs for artwork concepts. In 2018, we received more than 700 designs. From these, 10 artworks were licensed for use. See them below. And here you can see the 10 artworks licensed from the first round.
Artworks
Suspended Figures — This series of shrouded figures playfully distorts the human form, creating a dream-like landscape intended to interrupt everyday thoughts and spark the imagination. The fluid and abstract shapes – created by the body interacting with fabric and wind – are left open for the viewer to make their own associations. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Prudence Stent and Honey Long, Melbourne
Ngaarr — Ngaarr = hard / strong. This is a story of presence and strength. Derived from the patterning of the inner bark of a gulabaa (eucalypt tree), these designs by Yuwaalaraay artist Lucy Simpson, highlight the conversation about care of country. They speak of contemporary Aboriginal experience and presence, and highlight the importance of First Nations placemaking in the built environment. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Lucy Simpson, Sydney
Unvanished — Kent Morris is a Barkindji man whose art practice reveals the continuing presence and patterns of Aboriginal histories and cultures in the contemporary Australian landscape. The shapes and structures of the built environment are being reimagined to reflect long-standing knowledge systems and to reaffirm cultural continuity and presence. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Kent Morris, Melbourne
Time Forms — Time Forms considers the many modes and versions of time unfolding: lunar, solar, geological, astronomical and cosmic. Created using collage and photographs it examines our place in the earth's history by linking concepts of cosmic time and space to the graspable dimensions of the handmade. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Lisa Sammut, Sydney
Midnight Zoo — Studio A provides support for professional artists with an intellectual disability. Midnight Zoo is inspired by visits to Taronga Zoo. The work is a collaborative homage to the diverse and mesmerising species that populate our city and our world. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Studio A artists: Emily Crockford, Lauren Kerjan, Thom Roberts and Phillip Sidney, Sydney
Giant Bonsai by Garry Trinh — Garry Trinh creates works about daily encounters with people and objects on the periphery. These giant bonsai trees were photographed all over Sydney. They seem to magically appear overnight, created by someone with a giant pair of shears.
Magic Circles — Magic Circles is a dedication of love and devotion to the (LGBTIQA+) community that affirms ‘I am who I am, you are who you are, and we can be the people we want to be’. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Kieran Butler, Sydney
Koala Fantastical Fabulous Fun lends itself to the everyday Australian experience and how contemporary art can create transformative moments in time, altering the way we see the world. Australiana memorabilia and souvenirs are used to explore what it could mean to be an icon of the Australian wild. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Rosie Deacon, Sydney
In the future … I want to be a unicorn — Alphabet Studio asked year 1 and 2 students from Crown Street Public School in Surry Hills to express their future dreams. The result is an artwork that is honest, whimsical, humorous and thought provoking, compiled of the children’s uninhibited drawings and misspelt declarations. Suitable for type A and type B hoardings.by Alphabet Studio and students from Crown Street Public School, Sydney
BADABABABABBAT-DA by Tegan Wotton — Steadily feeling like the pixels build and are never not in front of me... another one to see, to be distracted by. A complex electronic place now, this is my simple space – the nineties. That’s when pixels were easier to absorb, easier to see, easier to commit to. Platform Mario and coin collections, fighting over the only two controllers in the house just to get in front of a pixel — ping / ping / ping / dat dat dat da da da, da da da da da dat dat dat da da... pixel, jump, coin, collect, restart.
