Mermer Waiskeder (Stories of the Moving Tide)

Ghost Net Collective

Sydney Arta life, 2004-07 Interloop Lloyd Rees Memory is Creation Without End Mermer Waiskeder (Stories of the Moving Tide) Table of Love Tank Stream Fountain Wishing Well Fountain

With an official public opening (on Friday 12 May 2023), smoking ceremony and dance performance by Kerkar Kus, the general public in Sydney saw the launch at Exchange Square (adjacent to Tower Three) in Barangaroo of the public artwork Mermer Waiskeder: Stories of the Moving Tide by the Ghost Net Collective.

The project for this public artwork was curated by Nina Miall (Curator International Art, GOMA) and commissioned by Lendlease. It feature eleven eagle rays (family Myliobatidae) a group of rays whose vast habitat includes the Queensland coast, Torres Strait and Sydney harbour.

The rays are suspended in an arc, as if floating on the ‘tidal waves of the air’. Casting colourful silhouettes on the ground below, which marks what was the original harbour tideline at the time of colonial settlement. At night, a different atmosphere is created with the rays lit from within and above, bathing the square in a luminous blue glow of an imaginary ocean experience.

Ocean-centric arts practice with a recycling, educational and global philosophy.

An Indigenous and non-Indigenous group dedicated to collaboration, sharing and raising awareness of ocean pollution by creating educational tools and making art from abandoned beach rope and fishing gear.
Ghost Net Collective ¹

The Ghost Net Collective has realised this public artwork with curator Nina Miall, who says: “With its unique hand-crafted materiality, Mermer Waiskeder: Stories of the Moving Tide brings the diverse communities of Exchange Square together in a singular experience of wonder, joy, reflection and connection. Situated at the harbour’s historical tideline, the artwork engages with Barangaroo’s earliest history as a place for fishing by the Gadigal people, having developed out of respect for the deep and continuing connection of First Nations people to the site, as well as the rich tradition of civic spaces as places of shared knowledge and community engagement.”

Source: Mermer Waiskeder: Stories of the Moving Tide, Barangaroo