Daramu House
100M Temporary Public Artwork
Site
Daramu House
Barangaroo
CLIENT
Lendlease
ARTISTS
Alex Le Hours, Bartolomeo Celestino, Lee Spendlove, Shannon Vos
PHOTOGRAPHER
Billy Zammit
Authority Creative was engaged by Lendlease with the brief of enhancing a 100 metre construction site hoarding and resulting pedestrian tunnel. The vision was to create opportunities for a sustainable and vibrant hyper-local ecology within the development. Our goal was to positively impact local artists, adjacent businesses, Barangaroo workers and tourists through multi-stakeholder alliance and divergent thinking. A public artwork that is truly a cross-disciplinary and collaborative outcome, with the broader community benefit as our prime focus. The Daramu House creative hoarding project aimed to celebrate local, emerging and established artists and makers in partnership with businesses along Scotch Row in Barangaroo.
‘Tokyo, Bartolomeo Celestino, 2018.
Photography Exhibition
Sushi Hon as our inspiration, we hopped on a plane to Japan with Bartolomeo Celestino, esteemed contemporary photo media artist and Bondi local. The result is a 72 image, 30 metre outdoor public photography exhibition, boasting images as large as 2.4 metres. Celestino’s body of work is distinguished by contrasting observations of the natural world and his considered portraiture works. Celestino is well known for his Surface Phenomena oceanographic time-based photography collection, meticulous attention to detail and old school methods of photography.
Often engaging with the politics of place and contemporary culture, Celestino's ongoing investigations are a subject of visual research. His latest 30 metre public exhibition 'Tokyo' at Daramu House in Barangaroo is no exception, capturing the mood of contemporary Tokyo in all its glory using large format, analog processes. His obsession for repetition in his artistic practice has us wondering if a 2019 Tokyo Collection will transpire.
‘Retro China’ , Alex Le Hours, 2018.
A 'Retro Chinese' response to the neighbouring Bings Bao and Beer; Illustrator, artist, designer and frequent collaborator Alex Le Hours has created an 18-metre mural, graphic poster and LED installation artwork. An artist whose works are self-confessed 'eccentric explosions of chaos, humour, colour and absolute randomness' Le Hours has sprinkled the Daramu House mural with playful references to Chinese restaurants from the 70's and 80's.
From cinema to design, signage and cuisine - as experienced in the west - this artwork is a mischievous and cheeky nod to cross-cultural misappropriation that embodies all of the key aesthetic attributes recognisable as Alex Le Hours. To add to the pandemonium, Le Hours has designed two custom LED signs that are installed along the temporary hoarding. Don’t forget to look up, otherwise you might miss the custom designed Bruce Lee posters pasted to the ceiling.
‘The Guardian’, Lee Spendlove, 2018
The second mural at Daramu House is by Lee Spendlove, an emerging Sydney contemporary artist who is inspired by the fringe art and cultural scene he grew up with. His artwork is an attempt to encapsulate the spirit of Guardian Day care.
Responding to branding elements of the business as well as the more emotive components of the space, such as joy and playfulness. Spendlove's intuition is central to his use of colours, geometric line work and fastidious attention to symmetry. Throughout the project, Spendlove spent time with various groups of Guardian Daycare children to give them a chance to learn how to paint.
Blown Lux Installation, Shannon Vos.
Interior Designer and Channel 9's 'The Block Glasshouse' winner, Shannon Voss, was commissioned to expand upon the identity of this transit zone, namely 'Hollywood Lux’ in order to give a grander sense of space as well as encourage people to stay a little longer. In Vos style, no detail was spared on this temporary hoarding artwork. Complete with marbled Beaumont tiles, large mirrored installations, Brass reveals, hand-picked lighting and a 15 metre ceiling overlaid with silk faux greenery.
Vos's appreciation of light, texture, and shape is demonstrated through this inside-out, site-specific installation that makes passers-by almost unaware of the temporary nature of the space.
With Love,
Authority Creative x
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