Amanda was engaged by Landcom to curate public artworks for Landcom's Northwest Places, an enormous area surrounding the new Sydney Metro Northwest stations spanning over twenty five kilometers.

For Amanda’s second iteration of the public art program, seven 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. Maddison Gibbs, Nadia Hernandez, Bradley Eastman aka Beastman, Tina Barahanos, Alexandra Byrne, Leanne Watson and Ian Mutch were selected from a long list of international and Australian artists. Their art responds to a brief asking them to create memorable, distinct, powerful, contemporary and bold artworks that activate and announce Northwest Places.

Tina Barahanos, Alexandra Byrne and First Nations artist Leanne Watson’s artwork Casuarinas and Black Cockatoos shares First Nation’s Darug / Dharug and English words about the natural Dharug environment and feeling good in a place, superimposed over Casuarina needles and leaf shadows. In the artists’ words, “Black Cockatoos fly overhead. For Darug/Dharug people, trees are recognised as people and maintain a unifying presence in the landscape, holding and sharing information about the places we all live. With a deep love and respect for their Darug environment the words help them grow with the community.”

In Caring for Country, First Nations artist Maddison Gibbs depicts Indigenous foods, medicinal plants and other flora of Drug/Dharug Country paying respect to local traditional First Nations culture and practices. Her motifs also recall the spirits of past and present ancestors, with colours inspired by spring flowers especially the pink flannel flowers of Darug/Dharug Country.

Nadia Hernandez’s artwork is also inspired by local food and produce from the Parklea Markets. In Everything Comes Alive, she recalls wandering her hometown local market in Venezuela as a child and the rich imagination these experiences inspired. The artwork invokes North Sydney’s multi-cultural communities and their connection through food in order to depict a positive and socially sustainable future.

Bradley “Beastman” Eastman’s Hills Intervention reflects the patterns, colour and design of the local urban environment - the construction, building materials and architecture of an area witnessing rapid population growth. This flow of human activity is juxtaposed with the subtle colourings of the local natural environment.

In Repise, Iam Mutch playfully depicts everyday moment of life, in his words the “memories, friends, relationships, food, music, creativity, work, leisure, ornaments, toys, plants, places and more”.

Images: Landcom