Mirvac’s Chifley Square high-rise LED artwork
Story: Christopher Holder
Is this the new plinth-mounted statue of ‘Important Dude on Horseback’? Are these high brightness LED panels the modern-day equivalent of the sculptured organic lump you’d traditionally see outside ‘60s-era office blocks?
There’s a long history of public art and commerce. Some of the greatest patrons have been the great industrialists… even Alan Bond had his record-beating Sunflowers for a few years before he was sent down the river.
That said, rarely does art, technology and architecture come together in such a perfect marriage as this. I Stay is a permanently installed, downtown Sydney, public artwork by Jenny Holzer. Without being uncharitable, I’d suggest that Jenny’s work owes as much to the Mirvac’s Chifley Square building and to OAMM’s installation of the LED panels as it does to her inspiration: namely to display some 300 texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, poets, playwrights, activists and writers. In other words, the art really is in the marriage: the poignancy of the words, the remarkable technological integration and the distinctive modern architecture.
The vision was to wrap a square column tilted at a diagonal of 45 degrees (40sqm per face) with the ability to play graphics on each individual face of the column as well as have the capability for the graphics to pass from face to face as if it were one screen.
OAMM worked with the content supplied by world renowned digital artist Jenny Holzer to ensure she had the precise, pixel-perfect canvas to work with.
The bracket design for the LED panels was a very specific requirement of Mirvac, with any drilling and welding strictly verboten. OAMM worked with Mirvac to design a customised bracket wrapping the column using just tension and a neoprene strip to preserve the column and make sure the warranty of the column was kept after the installation.
I Stay is more than decoration; more than architectural garnish; it truly enhances the amenity and the excitement of this large public space
OAMM used an outdoor 18mm LED curtain product manufactured predominantly for building wraps due to its light weight and larger pixel pitch with viewing distance commonly over 50 metres.
But it doesn’t answer the question: ‘Why?’ And for that we probably need to ask that of any art. It satisfies and nourishes people in ways that are difficult to explain. And art on a grand scale… a mass scale, arguably satisfies and nourishes en masse. This is a good thing. And for Mirvac it’s a great thing.
The Mirvac 8 Chilfey Building is clearly architecturally impressive. So impressive, in fact, that it took out the Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture at this year’s NSW Architectural gongs (congrats to Lippmann Partnership/Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners). On street level it features a six-storey open space, and here’s where I Stay is more than decoration; more than architectural garnish; it truly enhances the amenity and the excitement of this large public space… and what landlord wouldn’t want that?
OAMM: (02) 9939 3264 or oamm.com.au
I Stay: www.istaybyjennyholzer.com
Mirvac Group: (02) 9080 8000 or 8chifleyart@mirvac.com