Amanda was engaged by Landcom / Sydney Metro to develop a Sydney Metro Northwest Places Public Art Plan & Guidelines for Landcom's Northwest Places, an enormous area surrounding the new Sydney Metro Northwest stations spanning over twenty five kilometers. In addition to writing the Plan, Sharrad curated a series of public art throughout Northwest Places for the high profile Day One launch of Sydney Metro, Sydney's highly anticipated new metro rail line running throughout the city to the north and south.

For this first iteration of the public art program six artists were engaged to create large scale art commissions, each between one hundred and three hundred meters long surrounding the Metro stations designed by Hassell. David Booth aka Ghostpatrol, Jan van der Ploeg, Sam Songailo, Jason Wing, Georgia Hill and Timothy Harland were selected from a long list of international and Australian artists put forward by the curator. Their artworks respond to a brief asking them to create memorable, distinct, powerful, contemporary and bold art that activates and announces Northwest Places.

Pemulwuy “Butu Wargun” (Crow, Iawan) by First Nations artist Jason Wing, was inspired by the local First Nations history of Pemulwuy, who was “an Aboriginal leader who united many clans around the Sydney area to fight for his people against the British. Legend tells us that Pemulwuy was a magic man and escaped imprisonment by transforming into a crow. “Butu Wargun” means “crow” and “lawman”: it represents the strength of Aboriginal people and the power of transformation”, says Wing.

Jan van der Ploeg’s artwork utilises patterns, shapes, repetition and colour recognisable to his practice. The striking red and white artwork contrasts with the surrounding green foliage as an “anchor to the unlimited potential of structures and shapes in our world”. In the artists words “the organisation and balance arises from experimenting with the building blocks of basic forms, and creates order out of chaos”.

Sam Songailo's Pastel Shadow is a one hundred meter long artwork surrounding Bella Vista station alongside his immersive hand painted installation, Pink and Blue Oasis. Influenced by digital technology and electronic music, the patterns reference algorithms and concepts from these disciplines that shape his approach to physical and pictorial space recalling the modernist grid and digital networks.

David Booth's Living and Dreaming in this City explores the network of all living things, plants and creatures interwoven with people from all corners of our globe – playing, wandering, dreaming and exploring.

Everything New is Old Again by Timothy Harland recalls the history of train travel in NSW, specifically Helensburgh Tunnels built in 1889 and abandoned thirty years after they were constructed. Modern for their time, the tunnels represent the evolution of technology as this work shows a site beautifully reclaimed by nature.

Images: Landcom