DANI MELLOR

Project Name: Primordial Flora

Location: 55 Pitt Street, Sydney

Commissioner: Mirvac

Materials: Axolotl

Dimensions: 70

Just as the landscape of the Tank Stream catchment shifted and subtly changed along its watercourse prior to colonisation, the artwork describes transitions of flora — from swamp and sclerophyll bushland to the shoreline.

The response to the commissioning brief was developed from themes of Country and culture, through which ideas of a journey and story unfold. The artwork relates to the environment from which the Tank Stream comes and through which it flows, using elements to symbolically describe a place and series of spaces that sustained life, people, and culture.

Mellor’s artwork suggests, in some way, the importance of Country and its ecologies, and the enduring connection of the Gadigal to the land. This relationship between time, place, and culture is invoked through the artwork, suggesting a sense of timeless memory.