A striking new addition to Sydney Harbour’s public art landscape has been unveiled at Watermans Cove, Barangaroo South, with the installation of Monuments for Fishes by acclaimed Australian contemporary artist Mikala Dwyer. Among the world’s largest floating kinetic artworks, the ambitious work introduces a bold new visual landmark that shifts and responds to the harbour’s natural rhythms.
Monuments for Fishes is the final major commission delivered by Lendlease in partnership with Infrastructure NSW as part of Barangaroo’s Public Art and Cultural Plan. Its completion marks a significant milestone in the long-term vision to embed large-scale contemporary art throughout the waterfront precinct, further cementing Barangaroo’s reputation as a destination for innovative public art.
The large-scale work features five sculptural monuments rising to 23 metres above sea level from the harbour, inspired by lightweight fishing floats and paying homage to Indigenous fisherwomen. Crafted from carbon fibre, fibreglass and steel – the same materials used to make yachts – the monuments respond to the surrounding environment, swaying with the tides, winds and currents, and resonating with the changing light and reflections.
Mikala Dwyer created Monuments for Fishes in collaboration with Event Engineering. They drew on over 100 specialists to help design and build this majestic work in Australia, including engineers, shipwrights, spray-painters and steel welders and machinists.
“It started with something you could hold in your hand – a simple fishing float, striped and lightweight, sitting in my studio,” said Mikala Dwyer. “Blown up to a grand scale at Watermans Cove, this gathering of buoyant forms becomes a barometer of the harbour’s energy cycles. I wanted to pay homage to the fisherwomen who worked these waters, and to the sea life beneath.”
Over the past 11 years, the program has delivered four other permanent public artworks in Barangaroo under the Barangaroo Public Art and Culture Plan, including Shellwall by Esme Timbery with Jonathan Jones in 2015; Shadows by German artist Sabine Hornig in 2019; Mermer Waiskeder: Stories of the Moving Tide by the Ghost Net Collective, indigenous and non-indigenous artists from Erub in the Torres Strait, Cairns and Townsville, in 2023; and Upside-Down Garden by Jumaadi in 2025.
Several temporary works were also exhibited as part of the initiative, including Art Ninjas by Nobumasa Takahashi in 2016; As the Crow Flies by Reko Rennie in 2017; Art Month Hoardings by Reko Rennie, Tony Albert, Karen Black and Joan Ross in 2017; and Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) by Brenda Croft in 2023.
All artworks have been delivered under the joint NSW Government and Lendlease Public Art and Cultural Plan for Barangaroo, which provides a strategic framework for Infrastructure NSW, Lendlease and Barangaroo’s development partners to guide the commissioning and management of public art across Barangaroo.
Monuments for Fishes is now on permanent public display in Watermans Cove at Barangaroo South. For more information, visit: www.barangaroo.com for details.
Image: Monuments for Fishes by Mikala Dwyer in Watermans Cove at Barangaroo South (supplied)