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https://theconversation.com/the-art-gallery-of-nsw-has-transformed-into-a-space-to-cook-play-do-laundry-and-linger-265959>
"Children’s screams echo off concrete walls as they navigate bright-painted
monkey bars. Families huddle around a sausage sizzle. Teenagers lounge on
borrowed towels near a palm grove. Washing machines hum quietly in the corner.
But we are inside the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Mike Hewson’s
The Key’s Under the Mat is one of the most ambitious and
intelligent works of public art created in Australia in recent years.
What makes this work so remarkable is how completely it succeeds on multiple
registers simultaneously. It’s a functioning neighbourhood park, a sculptural
tour de force, and a sophisticated meditation on what we mean by “public
space”.
Hewson has thought through every detail with extraordinary care. Inside the
gallery’s cavernous underground tank gallery, brass spoons are hammered into
custom concrete pavers. Steel rails are hand-painted rather than powder-coated,
giving them a casual, approachable quality. Trinkets and tiles are embedded
throughout like hidden treasures. Look down at the ground and the pavers read
like abstract paintings.
The craft is exquisite – but it doesn’t announce itself. Instead, it creates an
environment where people feel genuinely welcome to cook, play, do laundry and
linger.
And they do. Watching families engage with this space – not in hushed gallery
tones but with the comfortable ease of a neighbourhood park – reveals the
work’s most radical achievement: most people using it (primarily children under
12, on the day I visit) have no idea they’re in an artwork."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
