A Northland artist has unveiled the biggest public artwork ever commissioned in Australia, a $6million quartz and sandstone sculpture overlooking Sydney Harbour.
Kerikeri's Chris Booth also created and built Whangarei's Waka and Wave millennium sculpture (with Te Warahi Hetaraka), the Rainbow Warrior monument at Matauri Bay, the towering water sculpture atKerikeri Domain, and many other public artworks.
His latest sculpture, and his biggest to date, is an Aboriginal-inspired work called Wurrungwuri in the grounds of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.
One half consists of a series of waves, made from 200 sandstone blocks and weighing 350 tonnes, cascading down the lawn below Government House towards Sydney Harbour.
The other half is built from 16,000 threaded quartz pebbles and decorated with a pattern from a rare Aboriginal shield.
Mr Booth said the Cadigal people had given him permission the use their "extremely beautiful and important" design, making the sculpture a bicultural statement.
The site of the sculpture had great significance to the Cadigal/Eora peoples for centuries.
The artwork reflected a holistic respect for nature - the atmosphere, ocean, earth, society and all living things, Mr Booth said.
Royal Botanic Gardens executive director Tim Entwisle said the sculpture was an evolving piece of art where native flora and fauna would make their homes.
It also paid respect to the Cadigal, the area's traditional Aboriginal custodians.
The sculpture was a gift to the city by the late Ronald Johnson, a businessman and art lover who committed most of his estate to a sculpture overlooking Sydney Harbour.
Johnson Estate trustee Garry Boyce said Wurrungwuri was completed within the A$4.5 million ($6.1 million) budget, which meant more than A$1.5 million was left for the St Luke's Hospital Foundation Trust.
Wurrungwuri was officially opened by New South Wales Governor Marie Bashir during last month's Autumn of the Arts, a nature-inspired arts festival.
The sculpture's name was chosen by Aboriginal elder Allen Madden and means "this side of the water" .
