Flynn acted as Curatorial Advisor, City Centre to the City of Sydney from 2013–20 (and was re-engaged in 2023–24) for projects with Hany Armanious, Tracey Emin, Junya Ishigami, Callum Morton and Lara Schnitger. Flynn’s relationship as curator with the City of Sydney predated her term as Curatorial Advisor. In 2010–11, she curated and produced art for nine central-city laneways and in 2006–08, she curated three annual City of Sydney street banner projects as part of the City’s Open Gallery initiative.
Hany Armanious (Australia), Paddy Bedford (Gija), Angela Brennan (Australia), Jon Campbell (Australia), Adam Cullen (Australia), Debra Dawes (Australia), Mikala Dwyer (Australia), Tracey Emin (UK), Matthys Gerber (Australia), Simryn Gill (Australia/Malaysia), David Griggs (Australia), Newell Harry (Australia), Louise Hearman (Australia), Junya Ishigami (Japan), Tim Johnson (Australia), Alex Katz (US), Lindy Lee (Australia), Alfred Leslie (US), Robert MacPherson (Australia), Rocket Mattler (Australia), Callum Morton (Australia), Susan Norrie (Australia), J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere (Nigeria), Nike Savvas (Australia), Martin Sharp (Australia), Lara Schnitger (US/The Netherlands), Rebecca Smith (US), Jan van der Ploeg (The Netherlands), Tjuruparu Watson (Irrunytju), Guan Wei (Australia/China), Justene Williams (Australia), Simon Yates (Australia)
LocationSydney
CommissionerCity of Sydney
CuratorBarbara Flynn, Curatorial Advisor
Selected reports
Artist briefs
Media
At the commencement of her term, Flynn wrote the City Centre Public Art Plan proposing artists for the transformation of George Street (2013), which was unanimously accepted by City of Sydney councillors. Other documents she drafted during her tenure include Report on Options for Lighting Cloud Arch (2018); Public Art Case Studies (2017); City Centre Laneways – Artist Brief Stage One EOI 0416 (2016); Public Art for George Street Spine, Expression of Interest No. E1213 (2013); and City Centre Transformation, East-West Connectors, Stage One Artist Brief EOI E11 13 (2013) (with Claire Morgan, Program Manager, Special Projects Public Art, City Design); and Case studies of 1 Bligh Street, Coca Cola Place, and Australia Square Upgrade forming part of the Draft City of Sydney Public Art in Private Developments (2013).
At the start of her tenure, Flynn ran the competition for the Sydney city centre (2014) that broke all records for a City of Sydney process, with 388 submissions by artists representing 24 countries. 42 per cent of the pool were Australian artists. Over the next eight years, she provided liaison services to artists, input on fabrication methods and lighting, and expertise in final inspection of artworks.
Flynn’s relationship as curator with the City of Sydney predated her term as Curatorial Advisor. In 2010–11, she curated and produced art for nine central-city laneways for the project Are You Looking at Me? In 2006–08, she curated three annual City of Sydney street banner projects as part of the City’s Open Gallery initiative. 18 artists, including 15 from Australia, one from Nigeria and two from the US, exhibited their work as part of the project.
Flynn designed the competition process and had negotiated with the City to permit interested artists to put forward expressions of interest without having to give over intellectual property (IP). Artists submitted five slides and a statement to confirm that, if selected, they would work to the budget and timeframe. In projects Flynn has undertaken subsequently, she has continued to structure selection processes to protect artists from having to give over IP.
Flynn had been permitted by procurement to identify artists through research and to write to them to invite them to submit expressions of interest. Each of these letters was copied to Ian Rudgley, the Procurement Manager at the City of Sydney Council. Barbara emailed over 800 letters to artists, curators, gallerists and other advocates in the period of two months from 28th August 2013 to the close of the expression of interest period on 31st October 2013. All correspondence during the EOI period was emailed to Ian Rudgley for transparency and probity.
Five artists were shortlisted by the Evaluation Panel for the George Street Spine (alphabetical order):
- Bill Culbert (New Zealand/UK)
- Mikala Dwyer (Australia)
- Junya Ishigami (Japan)
- Ugo Rondinone (Switzerland/US)
- Song Dong (China)
Five artists were shortlisted for the East-West Connecting Streets (alphabetical order):
- Hany Armanious (Australia)
- Josiah McElheny (US)
- Kimsooja (Korea/US)
- Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland)
- Tracey Emin (UK)
The briefs were distributed to the shortlisted artists along with a hard copy package of background material that was couriered to each in January 2014. The background material encompassed any available surveys, plans, elevations, 3d PDFs of built form and topography, extensive photographs cross-referenced to location plans, the George Street Concept Design document, tree and smart pole layout, paving concept, public domain furniture suite, and light rail smart pole family.
Nine of the ten shortlisted artists visited Sydney for the purpose of making a site visit in January-March 2014. During all briefing sessions an effort was made not to prescribe what the artists should propose. The intention of the briefing sessions was to clarify in person what was written in the tender documents, provide an opportunity for the artists to ask questions for clarification and understanding, and to inform all artists of the boundaries they were to operate within and what resources and assistance the City could provide to all. This was to ensure that all artists had the same opportunities, that no artist was disadvantaged, and that the process was transparent and fair as a requirement for spending public funds. This has required treading a fine line between proceeding with openness and providing structure which some of the artists have commented on.
The initial deadline for Concept Designs was 11am (AEDT), Tuesday 15 April 2014. In response to requests from several artists for an extension, it was decided that additional time would be given, and so on 25 March 2014 the artists were notified that the deadline would be extended by one month to 11am (AEDT), Tuesday 13 May 2014.
The artists were interviewed by the Evaluation Panel on 19-20 June 2014. The panel was comprised of Flynn; City Design Director Bridget Smyth; and four members of the City's Public Art Advisory Panel: then Director of Carriageworks Lisa Havilah who now heads up MAAS, Ultimo and Parramatta; Professor of Architecture at UNSW Richard Johnson; artist and visiting fellow at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW Janet Laurence: and Anne Loxley, at the time, Curator of C3West for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and since 2020, Director, A.C.E., Parramatta. Three artists were selected by unanimous vote of the panel: Junya Ishigami to address George Street, and Hany Armanious and Tracey Emin as dual successful artists to address Belmore Park and Bridge and Grosvenor Streets, respectively.
The City took the revised form of artwork to the public in August 2017, describing in a media release of 15 August 2017, how Cloud Arch had been developed by Ishigami since it was commissioned in 2014. Parallel to the announcement, Flynn and Bridget Smyth informed members of Sydney’s cultural community of the ways the sculpture had developed and the announcement to come. Many of the people they spoke with are quoted in the media release. The new form of the artwork was voted on and approved by Sydney City Council on 29 August 2017.
Best laid plans: The 58-meter-high Cloud Arch was to straddle the corner of George and Park Streets with one footing on the north-west corner (QVB) and the other on the south-east corner (Woolworths). Overnight in November 2018, the ground where the City planned to embed the footing for Cloud Arch was closed over by Acciona, contractor to Transport for NSW responsible for pouring the slab for the track as part of the implementation of Sydney light rail. After three years of intensive work on the project, the action of the contractor meant the City could not proceed to install the footings for the sculpture by the end of 2018 as planned. The City had lost the window to embed the footings before the completion of the line and the activation of light rail; it would be dangerous -- out of the question -to erect the sculpture with people traveling on the light rail line below.
On 10 December 2018 Sydney City Council voted to place Cloud Arch on delay. Costs of the artwork had risen because of design changes necessitated by the light rail construction, delays to work caused by the tram project and other associated costs caused by those delays. Lord Mayor Clover Moore was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 December 2018 as saying that ‘this exciting project’, had been ‘hampered in every way’. Councillor Jess Scully said, ‘I think we need to persist with visionary pieces of art … It is so unfortunate that we've been hampered in those efforts by a contractor who is not upholding their side of the deal.’ Councillor Philip Thalis said: ‘This would have made Sydney a better city.’
It hasn’t deterred Ishigami who still holds out hope that his seminal artwork will be erected in Sydney. ln reaching its decision, the Evaluation Panel that selected him said: 'lshigami's work rises to the most challenging brief to bring a focus, distinction and richness to Sydney's vision for its prime civic spaces through the creativity of the world's best artists.'
Curator’s statement (2014)
Flynn’s curator’s statement of 14 July 2014 introduced the three artists. She wrote:
Three of the greatest artists working in the world today – Junya lshigami, Tracey Emin, and Hany Armanious - are recommended by the City Centre Evaluation Panel to realise works of art for the Sydney city centre as part of the public call for submissions nationally and internationally, and the procurement process that commenced in August 2013.
Nomination of lshigami, Emin and Armanious ensured that Sydney will be transformed with a legacy of high quality, imaginative and exciting works of art that will contribute to the social fabric and enhance the quality of life for Sydneysiders. Taken together, the three works of art fully satisfy the objectives of the City Centre Public Art Plan that was endorsed by Council in July 2013. Together they provide activation through public art of the whole of the city centre, from north to south and east to west: with Armanious commissioned to address the south end; lshigami, the heart of the city centre at Town Hall Square; and Emin, the width from east to west of the Bridge Street-Grosvenor Street connector.
The Sydney Opera House at the northern end of the city at Circular Quay, is an integral part of this picture, through the way that lshigami's work references it. Cloud Arch and the Opera House are brilliantly linked by lshigami through the metaphors they share, of sailboats floating in the water and clouds floating in the sky.
The diversity of the nationalities represented by the successful artists being commissioned for the Sydney city centre reflects Sydney's own diversity, and nicely encapsulates Australia's position in the world, past, present and future.
The City Centre Public Art Plan spoke of the role in cities for both monumental scale works of art and more intimate ones. Works of art that are strong and bold are effective tools for place-making, and small - even delicate works of art add texture to the urban experience. The Evaluation Panel's recommendation of the successful artists covers all these bases, with lshigami and Armanious working on a monumental scale, and Emin more delicately, as a woman artist who is unafraid to show emotion.
Together the three works of art by lshigami, Emin and Armanious function in very different ways, inspiring us to look up in admiration and awe at lshigami's Cloud Arch; to undertake a private journey on foot to discover Emin's birds; and to meet and gather with a smile on our faces in Armanious' oversize milk crate. The emotional tenor of the works encapsulates the full range of possibilities, from Emin’s brave emotion to Armanious' cheeky irreverence and humour, to lshigami's unique blend of imagination and ambition expressed monumentally.
Pavilion, Cloud Arch, and The Distance of Your Heart formed part of the City's $220 million contribution to the NSW Government's light rail project, which since becoming operational in December 2019, has transformed the city with major public domain upgrades, including new paving, lighting, trees, street furniture and light rail stops throughout the city centre.