con atrium

by ivancheng

During 2010 I was commissioned to create two installations in the Conservatorium Atrium for special events.

The first event was the annual Open Day, which attracts a diverse and large public into the Conservatorium for a program of performance, workshops and activities throughout the building. Held on March 28, one of the ‘highlights’ of the day was the premiere of Peter Sculthorpe’s new work for cello, “Mrs Macquarie’s Cello Dreaming”. Performed by Emma-Jane Murphy, it was commissioned for the bicentenary of Governor Macquarie’s arrival in Sydney, of which he is considered the ‘father’.

With this widespread celebration of Macquarie, I worked with the vision team to create a space that would take on themes of “The Ghost of Governor Macquarie”. Throughout the atrium space there were dried and spray-washed palm fronds, suspended to either stay fixed or move with currents of air. Toward the lower level and over alcoves there were painted and bleached gum branches similarly suspended, a supposed ‘intersection’ between natural and built, the wilted separated in isolation.

The branches near the entrance of the conservatorium were counterpointed with two large suspended wave ships of blue fabric in different tones and painted gauze, all of it drip-sprayed.

In one of the corners there was a large wooden crate with a stereo system inside, the exterior having palm endings wedged through. There isn’t a particularly good photo of this

The back of the crate is open, and inside there was a stereo system set up to loop a track which takes its text from sections of Macquarie’s early diaries. Because of the structure of the atrium, the sound travelled to far corners, with hums of bass and droning higher pitch the effect when further from the sound source.

The track looped is below, and shifts and changes throughout its duration.

Thanks to the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens for their assistance and cooperation.

The other installation I created was to celebrate the travel of the Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra to present a concert at New York’s Lincoln Center alongside Juilliard. The original concept of creating a field of repetitive cultural intersection/import across the atrium proved unfeasible, so instead I enamelled rubber hoops the colours of the Australian and US flags, and hung them in a triptych resembling the famous acoustic donuts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, and perhaps an oversize, distorted, over-iced american donut.

The donuts hovered in space with a net limp and ineffectual in the corner, an idea of false bridge and potential ‘throw’ for sport or hunt, but unnecessary, breaking up a composition of harder plasticity.