With Sydney’s long-awaited Metro line between Sydenham and Chatswood now open, daily commuters and tourists are in for a treat for the dynamic Sydney Metro Art program.
Metro stations in creative destinations like New York City and Stockholm have long doubled as canvases for incredible public art projects, envigorating the daily commute and injecting a bit of magic into the mundane.
Sydney has trailed behind on this concept for years. The city’s typical train stations place function over form, coldly lacking visual appeal that’d otherwise help bring a sense of place to these hubs.
But that’s set to change dramatically with the opening of Sydney Metro.
That’s a big part of the Sydney Metro Art program. Transforming these new spaces into showcases for site-specific art pieces that’ll brighten Sydney’s day-to-day, moving away from the grubby underground train stations of yesterday.
A range of light installations, revolving soundscapes, murals and floor mosaics are spread across the new Sydney Metro stations. To recap, these are the new Metro stations that have been activated as of today.
- Crows Nest
- Victoria Cross
- Barangaroo
- Martin Place
- Pitt Street / Gadigal
- Waterloo
- Central
Speaking to the ABC, Sydney Metro’s associate director of design Kati Westlake detailed the unique challenges these commissioned artists face while working on new pieces for the Metro stations.
“It is quite a tough job for artists, working on a big infrastructure project like this, simply because there’s a lot of technical and functional things that they may not have to deal with on other art projects,” she said.
Practical considerations included necessary features like fire doors and signage, which artists had to work around or incorporate into their work in order to give Sydney’s Metro stations these incredible, forward-thinking designs.
Where do I find the Sydney Metro’s new artworks?
Each artwork has been designed to complement a sense of place at its respective Metro station, helping commuters and tourists feel grounded in these spaces which will resonate with them deeper.
This is where you’ll find Sydney Metro Art’s major pieces, mostly positioned around entry and exit points for commuters travelling between these stops.
We’ve rounded up some of our favourite works below, but there many new commissions coming over the next few years as the Sydney Metro Art project continues from now until 2025 at both new and upgraded metro stations.
In addition the new stations, listed above, artworks will enrich the experience at existing stations like Wiley Park and Hurlstone Park.
1. Martin Place’s “Mulu Giligu”
Martin Place station now has a pedestrian tunnel running between the existing station and the new Metro, conceived as Mulu Giligu, which is Gadigal for “path of light.”
The tunnel has been carefully worked as a future-scape of immersive sound and light, running on a dynamic algorithm to welcome various works like Tina Havelock Stevens’ ‘Sonic Luminescence,’ constructed from various field recordings and a “pre-colonial symphony” of magpies, butcherbirds and owls with vocals and violins played by Indigenous musicians.
2. Waterloo’s “Footprints”
Waterloo Metro Station now features a few site-specific murals referencing community and culture.
Central to this is a 9.7-metre-high black-and-white mural of Roscoe, a 7-year-old Indigenous dancer whose smiling face overlooks commuters from the concourse.
In addition this, heading down the escalator will take commuters past Footprints, a glitzy mural by Indigenous artist Nicole Monk, symbolising walking tracks of the local area with hundreds of community members’ footprints cast in gold and silver.
You can find out more about Footprints from Transport NSW.
3. Gadigal’s “The Underneath”
Artist Callum Morton was commissioned to create The Underneath: two staggering murals, one at each end of Gadigal station to welcome commuters as they enter the CBD’s big new structure.
Using 10,000 colourful porcelain enamel tiles, the artist has created 13-metre-high curving images of train tunnels with a slightly cartoonish style, referencing the freshwater Tank Stream that once ran nearby as part of the former Sydney Water head office—a heritage-listed building which is now the swanky Kimpton Margot Sydney hotel.
You can find out more about The Underneath from Transport NSW.
4. Victoria Cross’ “Sundial”
Artists Indigo Hanlee and Michael Thomas Hill have created an immersive digital artwork, Sundial, for North Sydney’s Victoria Cross metro station.
Sundials, which are ancient clocks that tell the time through interaction with sunlight, have been reshaped in an incredibly innovative, visually-stunning form with a 12-metre-wide screen hung at the top of the station’s southern concourse.
Commuters will witness the passing of time as images of the sun and the moon progress across this screen, changing throughout the day and giving North Sydney one of Sydney Metro Art’s most visually impactful pieces.
Handlee and Thomas Hill recorded hundreds of hours of footage, tracking all four seasons in the North Sydney remnant bushland.
This footage was then refined to form this giant 24-hour digital sundial, which features images of the natural world aligned with the time of the day.
Much like the pedestrian tunnel at Martin Place, this sense of dynamism will see the artwork change throughout the year.
You can find out more about Sundial from Transport NSW.
5. Barangaroo’s “In Time We Shall”
Artist Khaled Sabsabi has created a significant art piece for the new Barangaroo Metro station, located at the entrance with a nod to the traditional and original people of the Sydney basin.
Using the powerful symbol of trees, the piece symbolises the nurturing of life, culture and connection.
A total of 7 sculptures of trees have been fabricated from copper and steel, mounted to the eastern wall of the station with four bronze bands circling the concourse columns.
You can find out more In Time We Shall from Transport NSW.
6. Syndenham’s “Notes On Sydenham”
Casual conversations between artist Agatha Gothe-Snape and local commuters at Sydenham have been immortalised as 33 cash bronze drawings that are scattered around the hub, from plaza entrances and stairs to paths and seats.
Notes on Sydenham takes snippets of these conversations, which took place during the early stages of the pandemic, and turns them into “notes,” showcasing quotes and personal stories from 15 unnamed participants.
You can find out more about Notes on Sydenham from Transport NSW.
7. Central Station’s “All Alongside Of Each Other”
One of Sydney’s oldest and busiest transport hubs, Central Station, has also benefitted from the Sydney Metro Art project.
Look down and you’ll see a monumental terrazzo floor-work and text sculpture tracking the metro concourse at the station’s northern entrance
Worked up by artist Rose Nolan, All Alongside of Each Other is a dramatic addition to what was once a visually bankrupt maze of oft-closed platforms and hurried commuters.
Now, there’s a chance to slow down and admire Nolan’s work, which is a playful, red graphic running similar to a turf athletics track.
Various text can be seen on the floor, offering “meditative guides” for the commuter, geared towards uplifting the day-to-day with meditative phrases purposed towards inspiration and simple pleasures.
8. Crows Nest’s Ceramic Wall Relief
The new Crows Nest station (probably the most exciting of the bunch, given the area’s quality smattering of Japanese restaurants) gets its visual punch from Ceramic Wall Relief, a series of nine tile collage panels.
The series of 3-5 metre high pieces are each built with 81 smaller ceramic tiles, incorporating both functional and decorative elements to celebrate North Sydney’s brick and tile industries.
Artist Esther Stewart has worked in these complex, colourful and tactile pieces as an homage to Crows Nest’s artisanal history.
You can find out more about Ceramic Wall Relief from Transport NSW.
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