Profile        Projects        Published
Project

Quay Quarter Lanes



            Today, Arabanoo helps us understand not only the site but Australia itself, and the significant role Aboriginal people and our knowledges have played in Australian history. In order to tell this story with limited documentation, new literature discussing and framing the story of Arabanoo was commissioned. Writers and storytellers including Aunty Jeanine Leane (Wiradjuri), Uncle Bruce Pascoe (Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian), Ross Gibson, and Larissa Behrendt (Eualeyai and Kamillaroi) were engaged to contribute their knowledge and impressions of Arabanoo. This process importantly gives back to Eora and creates new works to maintain Arabanoo’s memory. These texts formed a key part of the research process for the artwork, providing a basis for understanding this extraordinary man and making sense of the site through his life and story. In his text, Ross Gibson makes the following proposition:

I wonder if it’s helpful to try to understand Arabanoo’s time – when worlds collided in Sydney – as a time when all his senses were blasted with a kind of cacophony in the system of harmonised forces that usually granted him his living. I wonder if we can contrive to see what he heard; to touch what he smelt; to taste it all as light. This mash-up of the senses might help us understand something not only about then but also about now, as the worlds continue to collide.

The artwork is made up of five artwork elements, which together portray elements of Arabanoo’s life and activate the site with a living memory. The artwork elements are:
  1. the depiction of an imagined bengadee (ornament) on the southern wall of the SJB building (Building C)
  2. the creation of a light and sound installation on the ceiling of the Studio Bright arcade (Building A)
  3. flags hung from the historic pulleys on Hinchcliff House (Building H)
  4. the inlay of fish scales on the paving throughout Loftus Lane, and
  5. the creation of a betūŋigo (oyster) fringe in front of the newly exposed historic sandstone wall of the Gallipoli Memorial Club (Building G).

The project curator Barbara Flynn describes this methodology:

Jones’s artwork achieves something quite rare: it is site-specific, yet transcends decoration to tell a story and embody meanings that are worth expressing. Equally notable is the way the artist succeeds in expressing his ideas and convictions without compromise while respecting and accommodating the contributions of others. Thus, the five artwork elements are woven together in a cogent and seamless whole without overwhelming or conflicting with any of the architects’ or landscape architects’ work for the Quay Quarter Lanes development. The five artwork elements are spaced evenly across the site to encourage people to walk the site. The story of Arabanoo and the first people of Sydney will now be better known to the people living in Sydney today and to future generations.

It is worth nothing that the artwork was designed in reference to AMP Capital. AMP Capital acted as the client, all personnel on the project were AMP Capital employees, all documentation was marked AMP Capital, and all approvals were performed by AMP Capital. For this reason, throughout this document, AMP Capital is often referred to, however Kent Street Pty Ltd issued the contract to the artist.

Excerpt from Jonathan Jones, remembering Arabanoo, 2022, Curatorial Guide and Maintenance Manual, pp. 6–11
Barbara Flynn Pty LtdInstagram, Linkedin, barbara@barbaraflynn.com, +61 (0) 411 877 379
Site by Small Tasks