Madeleine Gallagher, Julie Lee, Georgina de Beaujeu + Lis de Vries

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‘This Place’

This place, and all places, are an amalgam of layers constructed from the ground up. Past, present, and alternate futures on display. Starting with Country and Custodians and moving to the current collision of architecture and landscape, art and performance. Its future is undecided. 

This work considers this place. It talks about change over time and the future we have yet to create for this and all places. Drawing inspiration from the Oculus window that connects the building to its context, and the art and performance that occurs in the space, this work is a performance within a tapestry. A white area woven into the tapestry becomes a screen upon which sound-enabled images are projected representing the past, present and one possible future. Akin to the Oculus window in the building, this work encourages viewers to "see" the landscape and our place in it in a new way. This interactive focal point is grounded in a birds-eye view of the Sydney region, with the location of Phoenix Central Park denoted in red. Different tapestry wefts will signify land-use changes across the region, as buildings give way to vegetation then water. 

Given the scale of the tapestry design, it is envisioned that the weavers will embed a textural component by including different warp setts to suggest varied topography. The group developed a woven sample to illustrate the proposed textural effect to areas of the tapestry to represent topography and vegetation changes. 

Maddie Gallagher graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Design, Architecture in 2019, she currently works at Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects, Sydney, as an Architectural Assistant. Lis de Vries is a textile artist currently studying at the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT, Melbourne. Julie Lee has over 30 years of practice as a Landscape Architect, she is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) holds a position on the State Design Review Panel for the Government Architect of NSW. Georgina de Beaujeu started a career transition from strategy in the social sector to Landscape Architecture. In 2020 she completed a Master of Landscape Architecture, Deakin University, Melbourne. In 2021 Georgina was awarded an industry scholarship to undertake a PHD with Deakin University and Tract Consultants looking at how streets might be transformed into multi-use green spaces.