Urban undercurrents

Sydney is shaped by water - the ocean at its eastern edge, the harbours and bays that define its centre, and the tracery of rivers and dams that constitute its catchment area to the west. Much public art has made use of this elemental medium to transform or anchor experiences of place. While some of the post-WWI and WWII spectacular monuments used water to commemorate Australian experiences of war in Europe and North Africa, recent public art has traded global imaginaries in densely urban precincts for a re-engagement with place, nature and ecology at the edge of urban and suburban settings. This paper will investigate means by which selected recent artists and projects have used water to interpret new public art policies and/or bypass art-deficient urban designs. In zones of flux and uncertainty, historical, phenomenological and ecological themes are explored, as is the observation that infrastructure-integrated public art can enable the interested viewer to experience the breadth and specificities of an otherwise-alienating sprawling metropolis.