Public Art
Public art reflects the rich and varied history and culture of the area.
Artwork has been integrated amongst the buildings, amenities and public space. Each piece has its own story to tell.
Jipiyontong (Jabiru) 2008
cast aluminium, italian glass tiles
Artist: Janice Murray
Janice Murray is from Milikapiti. The work depicts the Jabiru, a bird found on the Tiwi Islands. The designs in the work are drawn from traditional body designs (Jilmara), used during Pukamani (funeral) ceremony. Tiwi birds are a common subject for the artist and reflect the totemic significance and abundance of birdlife on the islands. Janice’s traditional county on the island is Tinganu, an area to the far East of the community.
Journey’s Converge 2008
galvanised steel
Artist: Matt Huttlestone
Matt Huttlestone is an artist who lives and works in the rural area just south of Darwin. This piece of work celebrates Darwin Harbour, its people and its history. It is an interpretation and reconstruction of the shapes, forms and lines that are within the landscape. It is a kind of ‘joie-de-vivre’, for a place that has a long history of alluring many different people with differing intentions.
Reading the Palm Trees 2008
weathered steel, routered aluminium
Artist: Dadang Christanto
Dadang Christanto is a leading Indonesian artist who currently lives and works in Brisbane. When the hands become the tree perhaps we will find the relationship between culture and nature where everything can be understood wisely. Birth and death, disaster and fortune are the same.
Gapu Guya 2008
Gapu = water, Guya = fish
Ceramic print on glass
Artist: Wukun Wanambi
Wukun Wanambi (b. 1962) is a part of the Marrakulu Clan, who are responsible for saltwater imagery that has not been painted intensively since his fathers death in 1981. Wanambi learnt the sacred designs of his father from elders in 1997.
“Since my father passed away… ten years later I started to come as an artist. Now I have been recognized by the old people and the art galleries as a ceremony man. When I was doing the sea rights thing that gapu hit me really hard. That’s when I realized how important that gapu was to me and how the guya was connected to gapu. And that’s when I concentrated on these two pieces of pattern.”
Fragment 2008
cast aluminium
Artist: Katrina Tyler
In early 2005, Katrina Tyler decided to down her tools and take a trip around Australia which led her to Darwin where she settled for nearly three years. Here it lies testament to the resilience opportunistic colonisations delicate elements grow structure emerging. Discarded by tides delicate elements exposed structure eroding. Here it lies testament to the cycles disintegration and renewal delicate elements in balance structure evolving.