Well-known South Coast Aboriginal artist and TAFE NSW teacher Warwick Keen has created an installation at Barangaroo Reserve, consisting of 150 colour-changing light pillars.
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This is a first for Vivid and shows another career path for TAFE trained artists.
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The installation, dubbed Nura, is a series of Warwick's free hand drawn designs that have been overlaid on special polypropylene tubes to mimic dendroglyphs - designs carved in the bark of a tree.
"The inspiration for them does come from traditional Aboriginal tree carving which we use primarily for initiation and sometimes burial poles to signify the location," Warwick said.
"I've been working with these ideas and concepts for about 25 years, but what you have at Vivid is a really contemporary presentation.
"They're full on colours and there is nothing untowards, - it's an aesthetic thing for people to appreciate and fit in with the colourful spectrum of Vivid."
With the location for the installation being at the Barangaroo reserve, Warwick said he drew on its history as a prolific area for fishing with many of the works featuring fish, crabs or oyster shells.
Warwicks artworks were provided to a company called Mandy Lights, who do a lot of work for vivid and they created the tubes, which give shape to the installation, but also served as free-standing light boxes where a colour-shifting bulb was placed inside the tube to create the radiant glow.
Warwick said due to a bout of COVID-19 he had little opportunity to see the works finished before they were in-situ and said it made for a wonderful reveal even for himself.
"I spent a couple of days up there on a Monday and Tuesday and when I walked along on the Monday night it was just coming on dusk and it was just beautiful to see them lit up - it was just magic," he said.
Warwick said he walked the path past the art twice in the day time and twice at night to capture its essence.
"I was just soaking it right up - It's a really nice effect that was created," he said.
Warwick said it was sad that the festival would be coming to a close in just two days, finishing on June 18, and said he might make the trek back to Sydney on Friday just to see the installation one more time.
Jacob McMaster
I am passionate about amplifying people's stories and trying to do them justice in the written word. I find pressure washing videos soothing. email me jacob.mcmaster@austcommunitymedia.com.au or 0406 212 845.
I am passionate about amplifying people's stories and trying to do them justice in the written word. I find pressure washing videos soothing. email me jacob.mcmaster@austcommunitymedia.com.au or 0406 212 845.
