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.

Images: Landcom