Gadigal Mural
Related to City Art
A collaborative mural illustrating the rich and unbroken connections between this land and the contemporary practice of making and design.
Artists: Jason Wing, Dennis Golding, Lucy Simpson
Artwork description
Gadigal Mural is designed by Sydney artist Jason Wing with Aboriginal creative producers Dennis Golding and Lucy Simpson for the Australian Design Centre. The mural is a collaborative artwork referencing both the topographical patterning and material culture of Gadigal country.
The work features curved and circular lines that reference the geographical formations of Sydney lands and waters and the paths formed by Gadigal people before European arrival.
Outlines of objects, materials and figures, applied between the patterns and filled with vibrant ochre tones of red and yellow, reference the histories, culture and making practices of Gadigal people.
The creation of this mural was initiated in response to the historical importance of this site as a place of making directly aligned with the design centre’s use of the building in contemporary craft and design.
The word bangawarra incorporated into the mural means ‘make’ or ‘do’ in the Sydney Aboriginal language.
The mural adds to the cultural and visual landscape of the inner city. The artwork illustrates the rich, unbroken connections between this land and contemporary practices of making and design.
“You are on Gadigal land.”
Artists
Jason Wing is a Sydney-based artist who strongly identifies with his Chinese and Aboriginal heritage. Wing began as a street artist and has since expanded his practice to incorporate photomedia, installation and painting. Influenced by his bicultural upbringing, Wing explores the ongoing challenges that impact his wider community.
Yuwaalaraay wirringgaa Lucy Simpson is creative director and principal designer/maker behind Gaawaa Miyay, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander process-led studio based practice inspired by country, relationships and notions of continuity and exchange.
Grounded in and guided by the timeless and sophisticated philosophies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander design, Simpson’s Wangal/Sydney based multi-disciplinary practice connects to narratives of country through function, materiality and transfer. It does this through a wide range of applications spanning commercial, conceptual and community-based projects and collaborations across a wide range of media.
Dennis Golding is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist from north-west NSW and was born and raised in Sydney. Working in a range of mixed media including painting, video, photography and installation, Golding critiques the social, political and cultural representations of race and identity. His practice is drawn from his own experiences living in urban environments and through childhood memories.
The project was made possible with the help of Cracknell & Lonergan Architects, a multi-disciplinary architecture and design practice with directors Peter Lonergan and Julie Cracknell. Their mural painting team for this project included Tom Furneaux (lead painter) with Christopher de la Motte and Nicolette Aureli.
Commission
Originally commissioned as part of Art & About, the Gadigal Mural project was produced in consultation with the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and is now a permanent work in the City Art collection.
For more information visit the Australian Design Centre website.
