Call out for Sydney Artists & Creatives to Revive the Laneways of our Pandemic Stricken City.

Nike Savvas, Rush, part of “Are you looking at me?” Laneways 2010. Thousands of long, hanging, multi-coloured strands created a ceiling that lined Sydney’s Bridge Lane. The wind animated the individual strands to create a sky of abstract patterns. Moving in the breeze and catching the mood of those that walk beneath it, a swathe of trailing tentacles responding to the flow of air and people through the lane, making the invisible visible and reminding people to breathe. Photo by Jamie Williams/ City of Sydney.

Nike Savvas, Rush (2010). Biodegradable plastic. Photos by Jamie North, courtesy of the artist.

Not so long ago, Sydney laneways were seen as hostile, uninspiring and forgotten places, but City of Sydney has been working hard on continuing to change our perception with multiple initiatives.

Public art projects play a huge part in all this, of course. Large scale commissions and interactive artworks all challenge how we perceive civic spaces. And with the pedestranisation (is that a word?) of the CBD and the deployment of light rail, more people than ever are set to travel to and through the city on foot.

Except for the pesky pandemic, of course, which has put a bit of a spanner in the works this year, to say the least. As Arundhati Roy eloquently put in The Pandemic is a Portal in Financial Times article earlier this year – “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

With Arundhati optimistic sentiment in mind, City of Sydney is calling for public art proposals from Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to create temporary public artworks that reimagine and enliven laneways of the Sydney CBD.

For creative thinkers, artists and multidisciplinary teams with a strong interest in sustainability, communities and urbanism – this is an absolutely brilliant opportunity for you to create a temporary public art project by 11 January 2021.

This project is part of the City of Sydney and NSW Government’s $20 million fund to boost the city centre economy, support businesses and create jobs across the vital summer period.

One of the two Youngsters by Caroline Rothwell in Barrack Street. The work plays on the monumentalism of bronze sculpture in urban spaces, as well as preconceptions about identity. Photo by City of Sydney.

Michael Thomas Hill’s Forgotten Songs commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney before they were gradually forced out by European settlement. The calls, which filter down from the canopy of birdcages suspended above Angel Place, change as day shifts to night; the daytime birds’ songs disappearing with the sun, and those of the nocturnal birds, which inhabited the area, sounding into the evening. Photo by City of Sydney.

THE BRIEF.

Our once globalised city, now unusually empty, asks us to reconsider, reconfigure and regenerate public space and public life. The Covid-19 pandemic represents an extraordinary opportunity to pursue public art projects that interrogate, evaluate and reorient our civic spaces and how they influence people’s experiences of our city.

City is Sydney is seeking inventive projects unafraid to explore and inspire new experiences in reinterpreted public spaces, in particular laneways. Bold, fresh, relevant and meaningful interventions that reflect on Sydney’s past, present and future will be favourably looked upon, as will proposals that respectfully include Aboriginal stories, knowledge and heritage.

Ideally, proposals will present a strong visual and sensory impact harnessing an increased sense of empathy for each other, the natural environment and contribute to the sustainability, health and wellbeing of people and city spaces.

Welcome concepts can include, but are not limited to – installation; environmental art; plant-based projects; soundscapes; augmented/mixed reality; projected visuals; timed based media art;  and socially engaged practices.

Mural art can form a component of the concept, but mural or street art only won’t be accepted. You can view previous laneways artworks here.

Deconstructing Ways by Isidro Blasco. This art installation created an amazing 3D optical illusion of a vortex, and formed part of Art And About Sydney 2011.

Artist and creative will be able to choose from eight prominent city locations. The timeline on this project is QUICK – virtual briefing will be held on Friday 6 November, Expression of Interest close on Monday 16 November, with projects awarded by Mid-November.

The callout is open to anyone in Australia (and around the world), however, should the selected team not be from NSW, they will require to have a local partner ready to undertake the installation of their work due to travel restrictions, so please keep this in mind when applying.

For more details on the proposed locations, selection criteria, briefing, budgets and to apply, visit cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au. 

This Yellowtrace Promotion is proudly supported by City of Sydney. Like everything we do, our partner content is carefully curated to maintain utmost relevance to our readers. Thank you for supporting the brands and businesses that support Yellowtrace. 

[Images courtesy of City of Sydney.]