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Public Art Commission, Truganina (2026)

05/04/2025

As we celebrate the milestone launch of Kait James’ legacy public artwork at Skeleton Creek, Truganina, we are also taking a moment to reflect on Public Art Commission’s less public-facing work. Offering more than just curatorial and production services, we are a policy development organisation that has helped shape the way public art is framed, commissioned, and realised across Melbourne and the regions. ‘Narrarrang Ngarri’ is a wonderful example of an outcome shaped by long-term collaboration with Wyndham City Council and Greening the Pipeline to develop policy that foregrounds the commissioning of contemporary, public art.

While developing major curatorial projects such as Treatment (2015, 2017, 2023) and Front Beach, Back Beach (2022), we have also researched, consulted on and authored numerous creative strategies for councils and major organisations, setting the foundations for meaningful and long-term cultural impact.

One such strategy was the foundational draft work we led for the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Creative Strategy in 2016–17. The extensive research, consultation, and drafting we undertook has since enabled hundreds of artists and curators—emerging and established, local and international—to create work in response to the curatorial rationale, founding principles, structure and language we provided. These temporary interventions have offset the effects of the Big Build, while the major legacy and line-wide artworks will shape Melbourne’s culture and senses of connection for generations to come.

It is gratifying to see this vision come to life, and we congratulate all those involved in bringing it to fruition.

04/04/2025

Today's the day! The PAC team are thrilled to be unveiling Kait James' major legacy commission artwork 'Narrarrang Ngarri' as part of the Official Opening of Zone 5 West, Greening the Pipeline project.

In Boonwurrung and Wadawurrung, the words 'Narrarrang Ngarri' refer to the Sheoke tree. Situated along the renewed Federation Trail beside the Skeleton Creek Aqueduct, this commissioned public artwork pays homage to the deep cultural significance of the Sheoke to the Bunurong, Boonwurrung, and Wadawurrung people. It is conceptualised as a fusion of natural history, cultural reverence, and contemporary art, serving as a bridge between past and present, and between different mobs.

Narrarrang Ngarri is commissioned by Wyndham City Council in partnership with Deakin University’s Public Art Commission and Greening the Pipeline as part of the renewal of the Federation Trail. Greening the Pipeline is a partnership between Melbourne Water, Greater Western Water, the Department of Transport, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Wyndham City Council and is supported by Greening the West.

Video: courtesy of SculptureCo

02/04/2025

Through an EOI process, Rebecca Robinson was selected in 2024 to work alongside Kait James on the Narrarrang Ngarri public artwork commission. This Public Art Mentorship opportunity was facilitated by Wyndham City Council and Deakin University’s Public Art Commission with support from Greening the Pipeline.

"I am trawlwoolway, Bunurong/Boonwurrung, from my dad’s bloodline. Since graduating from Fine Arts in 2003, I've been a casual arts and cultural educator and an emerging artist working with textiles, ceramics, printmaking, natural objects and fibres. My artwork explores family history, both loss of and connection to Culture, and identity. I find inspiration in cultural living sites, feathers, plants, other First Nations artists and am passionate about how healing creative processes can be. More recently I have studied horticulture and am keen to work on projects that enable First Nations communities to grow their original foods again. I also hope to continue my arts practice and honour Culture and Country through my own public artwork someday.

It was great to be offered the opportunity to be involved during the final stages and logistics of Kait James’ ’Narrarrang Ngarri’. From concept to installation, the collaboration process relied on many different types of people working together and it’s been a rewarding experience to witness the challenges of such a large sculpture be overcome with dedication and professionalism. Public art is a fantastic prompt for conversation and knowing that Narrarrang Ngarri is a free and accessible artwork available to all makes it an even more meaningful project to be a part of, as I’m sure many people will stop to experience and reflect upon it.

I’ve always admired Kait's artistic style and the messages in her artworks so it was exciting to see Narrarrang Ngarri come to life. The Sheoke is such an important plant, environmentally and Culturally and it really has been honoured in this visually dramatic yet delicate work of public art."

- Rebecca Robinson

Image: courtesy of Rebecca Robinson.

01/04/2025

The selection process for Kait James’ Narrarrang Ngarri started, as these opportunities often do do, with an open call. EOIs were invited from First Nations artists and submissions arrived from all over Australia and beyond. A panel assembled from Wyndham City, public art specialists, and the Bunurong Land Council selected Kait’s submission along with one other to be given funding that allowed for a more developed conceptual scheme. Ultimately the panel chose Kait’s work for its sensitive place-responsiveness, deft negotiation of the landscape and historical engagement with the story of a tree species known in colonial parlance as the Sheoke that has huge cultural significance for Wadawurrung, Bunurong and Boonwurrung peoples.

After a complex and at times eye-opening process of negotiating a heritage site with multiple stakeholders, this remarkable work is now warming the landscape of Truganina. What stands at the site today is strikingly close to the initial grey-lead sketch Kait first pitched - an idea rooted in cultural infrastructures of connection, and goodwill across Country. PAC was extremely fortunate to work with Kait, whose commitment to her vision never wavered, just as the fabrication and installation team at Sculpture Co. held fast. These kinds of projects, particularly in a site like this, can lose their centre under the weight of competing interests. That Narrarrang Ngarri did not is a credit to the good humour and goodwill of all involved. Special thanks to PTA Landscapes, Sculpture Co., Greening the Pipeline, Wyndham City, APA Group, the RTA, Heritage Victoria, and Melbourne Water—who all, through some strange alchemy of patience and persistence, made it happen.

Images: courtesy of SculptureCo

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26/03/2025

Skeleton Creek is a stretch of country in Truganina that, like much of Melbourne’s outer west, carries layers of infrastructure and history in ways that are both visible and not. While the creek wends its way across the the volcanic plain, the site itself is inscribed by two major engineering feats: Melbourne Water’s aqueduct and the decommissioned Main Outfall Sewer (MOS) which it shoulders; an artery of urban sanitation that once transported the city’s waste to Werribee. These are the sorts of structures that shape cities while remaining largely unnoticed - unless, of course, you’re paying attention.

The Public Art Commission’s task was to curate and produce a project that wouldn’t just decorate or embellish the place, but would ask deeper questions about how culture, infrastructure, and landscape intersect. Through extensive consultation - with local residents, community groups, multiple stakeholders, and, crucially, the Bunurong and Boon Wurrung peoples on whose unceded lands all this is situated - what emerged was a way of thinking about the site that foregrounded its deep-time histories as much as its engineered present. With this in mind, and as a direct result of the consultation, the commission brief was framed for a First Nations artist: someone whose work could respond to the entanglements of place, history, and culture, while setting the tone for future public art projects along the revitalised pipeline, that connects communities for 35km from the old pumping station at Scienceworks in Spotswood, down to Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment plant.

From an open call for expressions of interest, three artists were shortlisted and supported to develop their concepts further, their ideas refined through dialogue with the many voices shaping this project. And in the end, through this staged and considered process, we were privileged to commission Kait James, whose artwork Narrarrang Ngarri has finally arrived at the site - a bold and profoundly layered work that stretches across the ridegeline of the MOS.

25/03/2025

Wyndham City Council and Deakin University's Public Art Commission are thrilled to announce the upcoming launch for Kait James' major legacy commission artwork Narrarrang Ngarri.

Recalling the shapes and sounds of a sheoke forest that once reached across Melbourne's west, this sculpture acknowledges the care for Country that the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nations have practiced here for thousands of years. Comprised of 1,080 fabricated stainless steel pipes, Narrarrang Ngarri is a bold and ambitious work that equally echoes the site's relationship to the historic Main Outfall Sewer.

Narrarrang Ngarri is situated along the renewed Federation Trail, between the Skeleton Creek Aqueduct and Palmers Rd. The site also features an amphitheatre setting, a community events lawn, community gardens, walking trails, garden beds and an upgraded Federation Trail.

The launch will be held on Saturday 5 April from 1-5pm at 73 Parkvista Dr, Truganina, VIC.

Narrarrang Ngarri is commissioned by Wyndham City Council in partnership with Deakin University’s Public Art Commission and Greening the Pipeline as part of the renewal of the Federation Trail. Greening the Pipeline is a partnership between Melbourne Water, Greater Western Water, the Department of Transport, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Wyndham City Council and is supported by Greening the West.

13/11/2024

Introducing the fourth group of artists and researchers participating in the Venetian Bind project: Sean Loughrey, Rebecca Gerrett-Magee, Dan Koop and Tania Blackwell.

Sean Loughrey works within a multi-disciplinary art practice, which includes photography, video, painting, drawing and sound-based projects. His installations, paintings and photographic work examine the notion of imagined worlds. At times these ‘worlds’ acknowledge political histories, at other times histories within art.
Sean studied at Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education, the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne and RMIT University, Melbourne. He completed his PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music, University of Melbourne in 2016 and is currently a Lecturer in Art and Performance at Deakin University.

Rebecca Gerrett-Magee is a Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba, Dja Dja Wurrung woman from the Murray (Dunghala) River region of Victoria/NSW, currently residing on Wurundjeri Country in the western suburbs of Melbourne. She works as an Indigenous lecturer for NIKERI teaching into the IND units for the Indigenous minor and major streams at Deakin, and is currently undertaking PhD research at RMIT looking at the emergence of Sovereign expressions of Indigeneity in fashion.

Dan Koop is an Artist, Curator-Producer, Facilitator & Researcher living in Naarm (Melbourne) exploring public places and curious spaces to bring communities together through temporary public art. He creates situated performance events that engage audiences to become participants, often blurring with his work as a Facilitator where he strives to act as a conduit between community groups and arts organisations. Dan is currently undertaking PhD research with Deakin University focusing on temporary public art, situated practices and participation.

Tania Blackwell is an artist and creative producer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, from RMIT University, a Master of Landscape Architecture, from Melbourne University, and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Deakin University.

Deakin University - Arts and Education

06/11/2024

Reposted from | At , two unique projects stand out, both deeply connected to Venice yet exploring the city in contrasting ways. On one hand, Professors Christopher Sperandio, from Rice University, and Sergio Soave, form Ohio State University, through the project "Wallpaper for Many" take us back in time to celebrate Venice’s illustrious printmaking traditions. On the other, Cameron Bishop and David Cross of Deakin University’s "Venetian Bind" project propel us into the future, examining the city's precarious relationship with water and climate change. Together, these works navigate Venice’s storied past and uncertain future, merging education, art, and activism in a city that has always thrived on reinvention✨

"Venetian Bind", by Bishop and Cross, tackles Venice’s deep connection and struggle with water. This year-long project involves 26 artists responding to the city’s ongoing battle with rising tides and climate change. Through interactive workshops and site-specific interventions, the artists explore Venice as a paradox—both a sinking relic and a model for sustainable living. Their work reflects the city's current challenges, capturing its dynamic essence and resilience in the face of environmental change.

29/08/2024

Public Exchange Bureau and Wyndham City are thrilled to announce that the Venice Mentorship Opportunity has been awarded to The Artist Known as FOOT, AKA Connor Ovenden-Shaw.

From late September, they will be joining academics and PhD candidates from Deakin University on the international stage at the Venice Biennale with host organisation the European Cultural Centre, creating new work for the Venetian Bind project.

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The Artist Known As FOOT (or Connor Ovenden-Shaw for the government pigeons listening), is a non-binary, q***r multidisciplinary artist based on Wadawurrung land in Melbourne’s outer west. Working within textiles, photography and performance, they are known for their unique and absurdist takes on gender identity, sustainability and beauty standards through the lens of sustainability, place and reclamation.

With a passion for uplifting the image of fat and q***r bodies, their colourful and nostalgic works have been featured within festivals nationally, galleries both nationally and overseas, and Australia’s National Association for the Visual Arts. Their works are held in various collections across Australia, including the Blacktown Gallery permanent collection in Sydney.

// connorovendenshaw.com

This Venice Mentorship Opportunity is a partnership between Wyndham City Arts & Culture and Public Exchange Bureau, a research arm of Deakin University.

27/08/2024

Introducing the third group of artists and researchers to embark on the Venetian Bind journey from April 15-19: Emily Potter, Katy Morrison, Olivia Millard and Victoria Duckett.

Emily Potter is Professor of Writing and Literature in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. She is an environmental humanities scholar whose research spans literary and cultural studies of place and environment, and creative interventions in place-making, with a focus on the legacies of colonial and extractivist histories. She is co-lead of the international Shadow Places Network, which draws attention to places and communities that disproportionately carry the impacts of capitalist-modernity, and author of Writing Belonging at the Millennium: Notes from the Field of Settler-Colonial Place.

Katy Morrison is a creative producer. Her work focuses on exploring the narrative capacity of new technologies through multidisciplinary frameworks and co-creative practise, fostering creative collaborations at the intersection of art and technology and producing and sharing knowledge.

Olivia Millard is a Senior Lecturer in Dance in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. Olivia is a dancer and dance-maker and her research is based in the generation of movement material by various means and for diverse situations. Olivia has extensively explored the use of “scores” in dance improvisation and applies that approach to solo work, group dance creation and performative site activation producing live and digital outputs.

Victoria Duckett is an internationally recognized scholar, curator and educator with over 30 years' experience in universities and creative industry events worldwide. Co-Director of the Deakin Motion Lab and Associate Dean (International and Engagement) in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia), Victoria works at the forefront of digital media, cinema, and performance studies to bring to light forgotten and overlooked stories of agitators, makers, and misfits.

Deakin University - Arts and Education

20/08/2024

Introducing the second group of Deakin staff and researchers to embark on the Venetian Bind journey from April 1-5: Kate Hunter, Katie Lee, Luigi Vescio and Annette Wagner.

Kate Hunter is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, improvisation, painting, and sound. Her work employs innovative use of found objects, polyphonics and verbatim recordings to examine the complex interplay between hearing, listening, reading and speaking that is implicit in the ways humans communicate through language. She was associate artist with theatre company Born in a Taxi for 15 years and has trained extensively in the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, Viewpoints and Composition. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Art and Performance at Deakin University.

Katie Lee's research delves into human perception through embodied, cognitive, psychological, and socio-cultural lenses. Her creative practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, video, image-making, and writing, employing methodologies that challenge habitual thought patterns and reveal the socially constructed nature of perception. Focusing on durational and process-based art practices, Lee explores interactive and participatory methods that challenge audiences' perceptions of what might be considered live or alive. Lee currently lectures in Creative Arts at Deakin University.

Luigi Vescio is a choreographer, researcher and performer creating works for theatres, galleries, digital and outdoor spaces. Notions of care, agency, unknowing and spontaneous shared authorship are central to his research which acknowledges art as a site-specific social encounter. Luigi's work predominantly manifests as live performance, installation, moving image or participatory encounter. Luigi is currently a Teaching Scholar at Deakin University.

Annette Wagner is an artist and PhD candidate whose interdisciplinary practice is in contemporary arts exploring memory and water ecology. Seeking to reveal new understandings of our connection with water, she generates audio, visual and spatial investigations to map social assemblages of consumption, sustainability and ecology. Her practices coalesce into abstracted sound, light and site installations artworks which seek to reveal our collective understanding of water and act to provoke the audience’s attention to consider water’s critical currency.

Image credits:
Kate Hunter, photo by Leo Dale
Katie Lee, photo by Joanna Pianka
Annette Wagner, photo by Samara Clifford

06/08/2024

Expressions of Interest open | Public Art Commission and Deakin University are thrilled to partner again with Wyndham City to offer a local artist the opportunity to work on the international stage at the Venice Biennale with host organisation, the European Cultural Centre, on the Venetian Bind project, curated by Cameron Bishop and David Cross.

The Venice Mentorship Opportunity will run from Monday 30 September - Friday 5 October 2024, and will challenge the artist to push the boundaries of their creative practice.

The timeline, application form, and terms & conditions can be found on the Wyndham City website: https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/services/arts-culture/opportunities-creatives/current-upcoming-opportunities-creatives/deakin

This project is a partnership between Wyndham City and Public Art Commission, a research arm of Deakin University.

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