Maria Fernanda Cardoso's While I Live I Will Grow, lies at the heart of the strategy for public art in Green Square authored by Amanda to provide a vision and framework for a program of public art across the Green Square area, that engages with the local existing and new diverse communities and that highlights synergies between art and sustainability, as well as reflecting upon the historical and cultural aspects of the area.

Amanda was engaged by the City of Sydney to curate a $4million program of public art throughout Green Square Town Centre. As curator, she developed in collaboration with the City and Peter Stutchbury architects the artist brief for this public artwork that requested artists respond to the local history of this once hospital site with a focus on community and sustainability. Maria Fernanda Cardoso was selected from a shortlist of artists with this exceptional living and sculptural artwork that responds to its context as a constantly evolving organism. Incorporating bottle trees, sandstone sculptural forms and cultural plantings While I Live I Will Grow occupies four hundred and eighty squared meters at the entrance to the Joynton Avenue creative precinct. It will be, according to the artist "a 100+ year performance that changes and matures with the community".

Cardoso is a leading Colombian Australian contemporary artist who's pioneering career spans three decades. The spiral is a recurring motif in Cardoso’s art, a practice that combines scientific research with a creative re-presentation of beautiful natural forms. The artwork creates a place to behold, inhabit and explore and the spiral forms and cultural plantings embody the concept of growth. Much as the hospital once nurtured local residents, the artwork reflects the growth of a healthy community and the inner growth and fulfilment of its inhabitants. Draining the fresh water stream and wetlands for industrialisation led to employment opportunities for the local working community and the need for a hospital at this site, but it also led to the demise of the local environment with resultant periods of flooding and drought. Storing water, Cardoso’s bottle trees emulate the water management strategies necessary for ecological renewal at the site, sited as they are above the storage tanks for recycled stormwater used throughout the area. Along with the grass plantings, the trees replace some of what has been lost.

Announcing the entrance to Peter Stutchbury's award winning Joynton Avenue creative precinct, as the artwork grows magnificently, it is a reminder of our ability to age impressively, and draw upon our wisdom and strength in order to adapt to change.

Amanda worked closely with Maria Fernanda Cardoso and her team, the City of Sydney and design teams in order to drive, facilitate and manage the artwork commission process and development through to completion.

Images: City of Sydney