artisans of public art

PROJECT TITLE:

History in the Shade

LOCATION:

Cabarita / Sydney / Australia

CLIENT:

City of Canada Bay Council

DATE:

2015 - 2016

DELIVERABLE:

  • Community consultations, public art design, production and project management for:
  • ► Historical Alupanels in upgraded brick picnic shelter

PROCESS:

  • ►Meeting with the Friends of Cabarita Park and Wharf to discuss the project
    and glean suitable content
  • ► An onsite drop-in style public consultation
  • ► Historical research
  • ► Design
  • ► Photo- and vector-illustration
  • ► Production of print-ready artwork
  • ► Printing and fabrication supplier sourcing and liaison
  • ► Installation co-ordination

CONCEPT:

The area around Cabarita was reserved as a public recreation site from 1856. Due to its location and historical connections, Cabarita Park has substantial regional significance and is considered one of Canada Bay’s premier regional parks, occupying a prominent position on the Parramatta River. Local interest group, Friends of Cabarita Park and Wharf, have collected a number of heritage and historical images of this special place of leisure.

To present this history, a permanent set of panels was proposed, mounted onto the walls and rafters inside the upgraded picnic shelter located on the eastern side of the park.

As an outcome of the research, many forgotten facts emerged about this unsuspecting little hideaway that is Cabarita Park. The final designs distill historical fact into vignettes dotted around the shelter, portraying key moments of 200 years of subject matter, allowing local residents and visitors to the park to learn more of its illustrious past.

  • " Three of the inlets in Hen and Chicken Bay, including Canada Bay, were named after 58 French-Canadian prisoners who had been deported to Australia, after their part in the 1837-1838 uprising against the British administration that challenged British colonial sovereignty in the Canadian province of Quebec. The deportees were held at Longbottom Stockade in Concord and later pardoned. In 1970, to mark the 130th Anniversary of their landing, a monument to them - originally erected in Cabarita Park - was unveiled by the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. "
  • " Measures taken as a result of the uprisings in Lower and Upper Canada represented significant steps in the evolution of responsible government and parliamentary democracy in Canada and Australia. "