Atlassian Central’s bold new art plugs into the Milky Way – and Sydney’s weather

The two artworks will be completed in time for the opening of the first stage of the development, set to be the tallest hybrid timber-built office building in the world.

The $4 million art project was commissioned by co-owners Dexus and Atlassian, and was a condition of planning consent to enhance public cultural amenity.

Curator Amanda Sharrad developed two shortlists, one of Indigenous artists and the other international practitioners, as she worked to a brief to create a varied, rich and memorable arrival point on the publicly accessible ground floor.

Andrew’s concept was selected from among notable Indigenous artists including Tony Albert, Maddison Gibbs and Jonathan Jones, whose Indigenous gathering space on the land bridge next door to the new Art Gallery of NSW’s north building is soon to be completed.

Park’s Prometheus was selected from among concepts proposed by Rana Begum (Bangladesh), fellow Korean Anicka Yi, Tue Greenfort (Denmark), and Porky Hefer (South Africa). Built of curved stainless steel grids and plexiglass tiles, the sculpture captures multi-coloured reflections and shadows to give an overall impression of a living changeable flame.

Both works were judged to add rich meaning to their respective sites and to create a memorable experience that would transcend the merely decorative, Dexus’s Brenton McEwan said.

They also reflected Atlassian’s requested themes of diversity and inclusion, given its multinational workforce, innovation and its desire to reflect First Nations culture and heritage, Atlassian’s Ric Wang said.

“The art proposed is inspiring, aesthetically powerful, unexpected, layered with meaning and of the highest quality,” the judging panel said.

Andrew’s canvas will be a wall that sits between the ground-floor heritage parcel shed building and the high-tech office tower. Clad in concrete tiles, it holds up the tower and supports the historic industrial structure of the old parcel delivery centre.

Park’s large suspended sculptural work will be hung in a double-height void of the northern public lobby, facing the entry to Central Station.

Park says: “My work highlights the spaces between people, and between us and our environment, make us what we are.”

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