SYDNEY AIRPORT TO DISPLAY MAJOR CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINAL ARTWORK

Sydney Airport and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) today announced that Kamilaroi artist, Archie Moore, has been selected to realise a major work of contemporary art for the gateway.

According to the airport, 'United Neytionsis' is a highly significant work that will give a strong sense of place in its location at the airport. 

Its 28 large flags will hang from the 17-metre high ceiling of the Marketplace in the airport’s T1 International terminal.

"The distinctive graphic designs of the flags reflect the diversity of Aboriginal cultures in Australia," states Sydney Airport.

"The gentle movement of the flags will produce a calming effect, creating a welcoming presence at Australia’s gateway airport."

Moore’s work was selected based on its striking visual qualities, and for its creative and conceptually strong response to the airport’s brief.

Sydney Airport managing director and CEO, Kerrie Mather, said that Sydney Airport was thrilled to support one of Australia’s most singular artists and promote his work to the world.

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“Sydney Airport is proud to commission this vibrant artwork – a major installation of well-recognised significance of recent Australian Aboriginal art – to extend Sydney’s arts culture to the airport and enhance the passenger experience,” enthused Mather.

“We’re delighted to be working with artist Archie Moore to support his vision and create a strong sense of place at the Marketplace in T1. 

"We can’t wait to share his work with a local and global audience of 15 million passengers a year, leaving them with a positive impression of Sydney as they depart Australia.”



Leading contemporary Australia artist Archie Moore believes that his work makes a strong statement.

“This opportunity has allowed this series of flags that celebrates issues of place and identity to adopt a scale and status that official international flags have," he notes.

"These draw attention to the histories, voices and presence of local Indigenous people on which land the airport – an international zone/'no man's land' – lies, but also the passages of cultures, pasts, territories, ages and cultural knowledges that airports foster,” he says.

United Neytions was first created for The National 2017: New Australian Art, with this new iteration of the work created especially for Sydney Airport.

It engages with the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia and speaks broadly to themes of boundaries, identity and inter-cultural understanding. 

Sydney Airport and the MCA signed a landmark partnership in August commissioning an Australian contemporary artist to create a new work for T1. 

A number of leading artists were invited to submit proposals for the project. 

The installation will be completed and unveiled in 2018.