Public Art
Community Building Rooftop Garden
Billy Buttons (Pycnosorus globosus)
This beautiful flower is categorised as a composite flower, this means that what appears to be a single flower is in fact, a cluster of hundreds of smaller flowers. If you won a medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, this flower would have been in your bouquet.
Bush Mint (Prostanthera incisa)
This plant is known for its powerful aromatic fragrance that arises when it is brushed past or blown by the wind. The leaves have been known to be used medicinally and when crushed have a scent reminiscent of eucalyptus. As well as being a sensory feature of a garden, prostantheras will also let you know when the ground is getting too dry by wilting their leaves a little…they will soon bounce back after a good drink and in this way can act as a visual watering alarm for the rest of your garden.
Interchange Pavilion by Chris Fox
Interchange Pavilion, by artist Chris Fox, draws inspiration from the precinct’s rail history combining over 250 metres of stainless steel ground rails, 15 tonnes of robotically moulded glass reinforced concrete and 1400 pieces of router cut hardwood. This unique material palette is supported by a 14 tonne structure made up of over 1650 pieces of digitally fabricated aluminium to create a 350 square-metre public art installation.
The artwork is inspired by the iconic geometries of the meeting point between two train tracks. It began with the rail tracks of the area around Redfern Station, Carriageworks and The Locomotive Workshops, where Chris noticed the distinctive switch geometry: in particular a point where the rail lines diverge off into many different tracks. The switch became a way to follow all these different stories, routes and paths that have occurred on this site. The artwork is also an opportunity for visitors to reflect on these histories but also to come together before diverging into their own future journeys.
Lobby Art by Jonathan Jones
Located in the Lobby of Axle, Jonathan Jones’ Untitled (red gum slabs) is a site-specific artwork created in response to South Eveleigh’s rail history, proximity to the railway network, and both local and state Indigenous heritage. The old red gum slabs used in this artwork were originally harvested in the Koondrook/Barham region on the Murray River, some over 100 years ago.
The New South Wales timber industry in this region, like in many other areas, supplied the railway sleepers used throughout the State. The timber and railway industries have historically employed Indigenous people, with the railway providing the physical means for many to come to Sydney, after the Freedom of Movement Act, in search of a better life. In this way the railway network has been an important network for many Indigenous people, connecting the city and the country. The layout of the slabs reflects the railway lines and their natural shapes talk to the internal architectural treatment of the building, reminding viewers of the site’s past and future.