Birchgrove, Ballast Point Park, sign

This old sign is embedded in the garden near the entrance of Ballast Point Park, in the inner west suburb of Birchgrove. Like parts of the artworks that stand next to it, the sign is an old relic from the former "Caltex" oil refinery that once stood on this site. The artworks seen here are "Tank 101" and "The Tank Farm", featuring parts of old rusty tanks used by the refinery.

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Birchgrove, Ballast Point Park, art

 This view of Ballast Point Park in Birchgrove shows a couple of public artworks. "Delicate Balance" by Robyn Backen, hangs over the water's edge, looking out on Sydney Harbour and Mort Bay at Balmain. The wall with a watery theme features the words "Like us, water breathes and dances to and fro between the earth and sky". It uses a dot font typeface used throughout the park to reflect the thousands of rivets and circular tanks that were once located on this former oil refinery site.

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Birchgrove, Ballast Point Park, art

This is part of an artwork located in the middle of Ballast Point Park at Birchgrove, with a glimpse of the Sydney skyline seen below. "Tank 101" was created to symbolise the past working history of the site by Caltex, as an oil refinery. The original tank was the largest industrial storage vessel on this site. Panels of curved sheet steel from the old tank were incorporated in this structure with graphics using a dot font typeface to reflect the thousands of rivets and circular tanks once on the site. The text is part of a line from "The Death of Isaac Nathan" a poem by Australian poet Les Murray: "Stone statues of ancient waves, tongue like dingoes on shore".

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Botanic Gardens, Memory Is Creation Without End

This art work is located in the Royal Botanic Gardens between Macquarie Street, the Cahill Expressway and the Northern Depot Gate. “Memory Is Creation Without End” by Kimio Tsuchiya was created in 2000 and installed as part of the City of Sydney's Sculpture Walk program. It features sandstone blocks which are relics of demolished buildings symbolising the circular connection of past, present, and future. This perspective shows the proximity of office buildings in the central business district to the botanic gardens.

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Newtown, warehouse (Theme Day: Mystery Object)

This redeveloped warehouse is located in the inner city suburb of Newtown. The giant mouth, complete with teeth and a tongue poking out, is perched on the facade. There is no signage on this building that might offer any clues about this mystery object. 

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Camellia, median strip

This median strip separates opposing lanes of traffic of the Grand Avenue, in the western suburb of Camellia. It is landscaped, planted with trees and features these decorative rocks which recreate Aboriginal rock engravings. This group of rocks features emus and emu eggs.

Customs House Square, Sydney Ice Bear, Vivid Sydney

"Sydney Ice Bear" was an ice sculpture of a male polar bear that was located in Customs House Square. It was carved by British sculptor Mark Coreth for World Environment Day to highlight the human impact on our environment and to create awareness of climate change. This happened to coincide with the Vivid Sydney festival, so it had quite a spectacular backdrop at night with the light projections on Customs House that I featured yesterday. I featured some daytime shots of the sculpture here.

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Customs House, Vivid Sydney

These light projections on Customs House at Circular Quay were displayed during the Vivid Sydney festival. "Unfamiliar Customs" was created by The Electric Canvas, transforming this sandstone building's facade with a series of 3D-mapped animation sequences. The projections both celebrate and sometimes mock the iconic architecture in a playful creation reflecting its 160 years standing on the shore of Sydney Harbour.

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Campbells Cove, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Vivid Sydney

This artwork near the water's edge of Campbells Cove at The Rocks, with a spectacular backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, was installed for the Vivid Sydney festival. "Ember", created by Joe Snell was a 30 metre long glowing installation that pulsates between red and orange. It evokes the beauty of dying embers and the danger in the potential of an 'ember attack' that is synonymous with Australian bush fires. It tantalises with its warm ambience on a winter's night, drawing you closer to touch the glowing coals. It also doubled up as a bench for the audience of the Fire Dance performance every hour.

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Sydney Opera House, Vivid Sydney, Lighting the Sails

The Sydney Opera House was illuminated for the Vivid Sydney festival which ran from the 27th May to the 13th June. The "Lighting the Sails" animations were created by a team from France called Superbien.
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Circular Quay, Vivid Sydney, sun

This animated sculpture was suspended above the Circular Quay foreshore at the Overseas Passenger Terminal for the Vivid Sydney festival. “The Light Wheel” was created by Australia’s Andre Kecskes and Mark Hammer. It is a play on the sun as the source of light, with LED lamps creating a mass of moving patterns which cycle through the colour spectrum with pulses and ripples throughout the evening. The sculpture runs entirely off one 10 amp outlet.

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Circular Quay, Vivid Sydney, waves and fish

These artworks, located around Circular Quay and at The Rocks, were part of the Vivid Sydney festival. "Light Wave Action" (above) was designed by Haron Robson’s lightmatters team in Australia in collaboration with Bow Jaruwangsanti from Thailand, Kristy Philp from Fiji, Christa Van Zoeren from the Netherlands. Visitors could wander through this wave-like sculpture for a multi-sensory experience, inspired by nature, reflecting the subtle colour of twilight skies and paying homage to the sea – representing nature's power in the movement and formation of waves. "School" (below) designed by Jon Voss of Australia was a large group of fish seemingly swimming in a continuous circle of variable light through the limbs of a tree. Each fish gives off a soft glow intensified by the rough-cut edges of its skeletal form. Individually, they emit a low light but together as a school, the light is intensified. It imitates the shimmering light and movement of schooling fish but floating here in an urban environment.

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Sydney Opera House, Vivid Sydney, Lighting the Sails

The Sydney Opera House is illuminated every year for the Vivid Sydney festival. This year's "Lighting the Sails" was created by a team from France called Superbien. These designs were rather more difficult to photograph than in previous years because they were so animated.

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Circular Quay, Vivid Sydney, stars

This artwork was hung above a walkway at Circular Quay during the Vivid Sydney festival. The spatial installation takes the theme of this yea's festival "Let there be Light" to hark back to the beginning of time, before city light pollution dimmed our view of scattered stars. "Crystallized" was created by Andrew Daly and Katharine Fife from 4000 edge-lit acrylic, recyclable rods like a canopy of glittering stalactites in a cave. The programmed LEDs gave a fluctuating colourful abstraction of a starry night sky that you could wander beneath.

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Museum of Contemporary Art, Vivid Sydney, Interactive Paint Projection

This "Interactive Paint Projection" was displayed on the facade and sign of the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay, during the Vivid Sydney festival. It has been created by Australia's Spinifex Group, in collaboration with The Electric Canvas and engages the general public. It uses interactive technology that interprets body movements to create colourful splashes, drips and spirals on the exterior of the museum. Two people standing in the foreground, with their shadows seen at the base of the light projection, move their bodies around to create a unique piece of art.

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Circular Quay, Vivid Sydney, jellyfish

These light balloons representing giant jelly fish floating above Sydney Harbour were located on the foreshore of Circular Quay West, as part of the Vivid Sydney festival. "Jellight" was created by Simon Lee, Aamer Taher and Pascal Petitjean from Australia, Singapore and France. The jellyfish are departing the polluted oceans to escape into the universe like UFOs.

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