Overview
Sydney has some great street sculpture hidden around the traps. But while almost all of it is on display almost all of the time, it's something you can easily lose track of when we're not in the middle of dressing them up or moving them around. We have a city full of (mostly) pleasant sculptural surprises.
Here at Concrete Playground we thought we'd help with your hunting for these outdoor sculpted beauties by narrowing it down with our list of seven of Sydney's best street sculptures.
1. Il Porcellino (The Little Pig) by Pietro Tacca
Where: Outside Sydney Hospital, Macquaries Street, CBD. Copy of Pietro Tacca's (1547) statue in a fountain in Marketo Nuovo, Florence.
Although not as cute as its title suggests, this statue is an iconic one, looking out over busy Macquarie Street as it perennially dribbles water. It’s one of five copies cast by the Florence foundry, Fonderia Ferdinando Marinelli, donated to the Sydney Hospital by Marchessa Clarissa Torrigiani in memory of her father and brother (both had been respected surgeons at the hospital). Its nose is golden from being rubbed for good luck, although tour guides are known to encourage tourists to rub a different part of the little pig.
2. Bibles and Bullets by Fiona Foley
Where: Redfern Park, Redfern Street
Bibles and Bullets consists of cast stainless steel and bronze lotus flowers that emerge from the ground and is a part of Foley’s art playground in Redfern Park. The delicate flowers, made of invincible bronze, are a beautiful contradiction, representing the strength of a colonised culture.
3. Always Was, Always Will Be by Reko Rennie
Where: 1-5 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst
If you ever frequent Oxford Street to shop or get boozy, you’ll have noticed a building that looks like it has been painted by a drag queen in bright pink and blue in Taylor Square this year. Although it could be mistaken for an obnoxious beauty parlour, it is in fact an artwork through which artist Rennie explores what it means to be an urban Aboriginal in contemporary Australian society. The geometric diamond pattern references the traditional markings of the Kamilaroi people. It reminds Australians that although Sydney may change and evolve, it was and always will be Gadigal country.
4. El Alamein Fountain by Bob Woodward
Where: Cnr Darlinghurst Road and Macleay Street, Kings Cross
Most Sydney-siders at some point in their life have surely uttered ‘meet you at the fountain in the Cross.’ Looking like a golf ball or dandelion, this one of Sydney’s best-loved icons. What you might not know is that it’s a memorial to soldiers who died in 1942 during the Second World War in two battles at El Alamein, Egypt. It was restored this year and remains smack bang in the Cross. If sculptures could talk…
5. Aspire (Under the Freeway) by Warren Langley
Where: Harris Street, Ultimo
This fantastic piece somehow blends into its natural surroundings and very much stands out concurrently. When you drive past it, you do a double take, not sure if it was a magical apparition you dreamed up. It celebrates the community uprising of nearby Fig Street, which prevented local housing being destroyed for the Western Distributor. The glowing forest of trees is at one with its urban surroundings; a co-habitual, peaceful presence.
6. Forgotten Songs by Michael Thomas Hill
Where: Angel Place, Sydney
This flight of cages commemorates the original wildlife that occupied Sydney before it was settled by the Europeans. Each cage plays a song of one of fifty birds that would have lived in the area before being forced out by colonisation. The calls change as the sun sets and turn into those of nights birds. Beautiful yet melancholy, this sculpture was a part of 2009’s Art By George! Laneway art program but it was kept on. Nice one Sydney.
7. In Between Two Worlds by Jason Wing
Where: Kimber Lane, CBD
These spirit figures play on Wing’s dual heritage; he is Aboriginal-Chinese and in both cultures, the elements are said to have their own spirits. The half human, half spirit figures in Kimber Lane represent our past, present and future ancestors. The figures glow blue at night in an otherwise dark and dank lane; watching over the city’s inhabitants.
Leading image of John Cornwell's statue of Mathew Flinders cat Trim from outside the State Library by Glen Reilly. Il Porcellino photo by Minnaert. Reko Rennie's Always Was photo by Newtown Graffiti. Photo of El Alamein Fountain by angusf. Forgotten songs photo by Colleen Galvin.