Near Kin Kin - Cave Urban

Overview

Customs House Square will be going back to nature, thanks to Art & About. From September 18 – October 11, passers-by will find themselves wandering through a 21-metre-high forest, made of more than 400 bamboo poles. They’ll be encouraged to imagine the wilderness that once covered Sydney Cove, while contemplating current destruction of the natural environment.

Titled Near Kin Kin, the artwork is the creation of Cave Urban, a Sydney-based design collective dedicated to bamboo. Their previous projects include Hot House (Dark Mofo 2015), Save Our Souls (Sculpture By the Sea 2014) and Woven Cloud (Woodford Folk Festival 2014-15).

“It's a privilege to be part of Art & About Sydney and to recreate a piece of another world in a place of such poignancy,” says Nici Long, principal at Cave Urban. “It's a chance for people to see the sheer scale and beauty of bamboo and its potential as a sustainable building material.”

Fifteen people will labour for a total of 500 hours to bring Near Kin Kin into being. The bamboo is being harvested from a hillside farm in Queensland after which the sculpture is named, and will be recycled afterwards.

“Near Kin Kin is a rare chance to reflect on the many layers of Sydney Cove’s history,” says Lord Mayor Clover Moore. “The enormous beams of bamboo will invoke awe in anyone who stands beneath them. By bringing the forest back into the heart of the city, the project will allow visitors to step back in time to a much earlier Sydney.”

Image by Juan Pablo Pinto (artist's impression).