Parko Techni 2018 is a site-wide collection of six new temporary public artworks by artists who have been invited to visually respond to Sydney Olympic Park’s unique character.
Following an Expression of Interest program conducted by Sydney Olympic Park Authority, the works created reflect both current modes of contemporary art practice and the rich diversity of the Park’s built and natural environment.
While traditionally most of Sydney Olympic Park’s arts events are exhibited at Newington Armory, Parko Techni 2018 is a site-wide display and works have been realised in a variety of media including digital projection, interactive light poles, rope-based works, murals and free-standing sculpture.
“The Park has a unique energy and is anything but a homogenous place,” said Tony Nesbitt, Sydney Olympic Park Authority’s Senior Manager, Place Activation and Strategy. “We have one of the world’s great urban parklands, monumental architecture, stadia, intimate pocket parks and sparkling new residential precincts, and these have all informed the works in this show.”
The six temporary public art installations are: Lumiform’s Ember is an immersive light installation that evokes an awareness of natural ephemera and the cycles of growth and renewal that surround us every day; and Khaled Sabsabi’s large format projection, more than, elegantly combines images drawn from the site’s architectural structures with elements of the Park’s extraordinary environmental diversity (this artwork is viewable at night time only).
Gary Deirmendjian’s drop and drape are a duo of minimalist, highly site-sensitive rope interventions that draw their form and meaning directly from the Park’s architecture – Olympic Park train station (drop) and the sky bridge linking the Commonwealth Bank buildings across Park Street (drape).
Emma Anna’s Architecture for Birds, a series of freestanding timber totems in Jacaranda Square, emerges as a cluster of abstracted birdhouses, and acknowledges the role birds place in city life; and Eggpicnic’s Here and There pays homage to the migratory shorebirds that cross the world to spend their summers in the Park, and also celebrates our new pedestrian link between Australia Avenue and Bicentennial Park.
The Parko Techni Public Artworks are on display throughout Sydney Olympic Park until 31 October 2018. For more information, visit: www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au for details.
Image: Lumiform’s Ember (supplied)