A multi-level car park in western Sydney has become the backdrop for Dharug man’s latest work of Aboriginal art, Shane Smithers.
And that’s a clear example of how little things can grow big things.
Small things grow: a new work of art by Dharug in western Sydney. Photo: Jess Layt
The new Space 1000 commuter car park was officially opened at Leppington station last month
The design outside the parking lot was based on a small painting by Indigenous artist Shane Smithers, who also attended the opening ceremony on November 22. The parking lot will meet the growing needs of the Camden community.
Design: Artist Shane Smithers designed the piece that would form the basis of the parking lot’s exterior aesthetic.
Dr. Smithers of Katoomba uses traditional Indigenous symbols and designs in a contemporary style to tell stories both ancient and modern.
Dr Smithers said the vertical white lines representing our connection to heaven, meeting the horizontal red lines (connection to earth) are an abstraction of Dharug’s’ country pattern ‘which is a simple hatch,’ spread out like a checkerboard suggesting that the sky meets the earth, as a blanket covers the ground. “
“This work of art is about this bountiful land where the generative forces of heaven and earth come together to create life. This is the place where I live, where you live, where we live, walking together on the earth, touching the sky. “
Dr Smithers, of the Burraberongal clan, said it was a 50cm by 40cm piece of art in Katoomba Gallery 188. She was sold, redeemed by him, and then ended up being the catalyst for art that was wrapped around a building with a 300 meter circumference. The original tiny work of art now presents itself as a talisman in his studio.
Artist Shane Smithers explains his play alongside Camden MP Peter Sidgraves and others.
Dr Smithers works with a range of architects and engineers through his company 500 Voices and is part of a planning offering to make the interior art of the High Mountain Tunnel.
He is also in discussion with the Blue Mountains Council regarding the creation of indigenous stone carvings in public spaces in the mountains.
“I’ve always been an artist in a way,” he said. He is also trained as a carpenter and clothing maker and said, “I never design something that cannot be built.”
He likes the idea of working on “portals” of the past and present world and wants his legacy to be bringing Indigenous stories, art and culture into public spaces. He has about another dozen major outdoor projects underway.
The new car park has more than 1,300 solar panels on its roof and 10 charging stations for electric vehicles. More than 900 people worked on the project.
