Public Domain: Major Upgrades

For its 50th anniversary, the Sydney Opera House paid homage to the Indigenous land on which it was built by hosting Quandamooka artist Megan Cope’s public artwork Whispers (2023) from September 27 to October 31. Thousands of volunteers helped to create the three-part installation, which utilized 85,000 oyster shells and 200 timber poles to reimagine the Northern Broadwalk as a composite of local histories and communal heritage reflecting the Indigenous history of the site.

Sydney’s Artspace, a contemporary art center funded by the New South Wales government, announced that its Woolloomooloo headquarters, The Gunnery, will reopen on December 15, coinciding with the institution’s 40th anniversary. While Artspace has been based there since 1993, a three-year renovation has expanded its footprint by another floor, allowing Artspace to occupy the entire heritage-listed building for the first time in its history. The revamp features increased exhibition and multipurpose spaces, a learning studio, an accessible archive, and ten subsidized studios for working artists.

An extensive restoration project has begun in October on Taro Okamoto’s giant mural, Myth of Tomorrow (1968–69), which has been located in Tokyo’s Shibuya Station since 2008. Depicting the moment of an atomic bomb’s explosion, the 5.5-by-30-meter mural shows signs of material decay, such as cracks, peeling, and discoloration. After an initial 40-day phase, the conservation project will span multiple years.