Ballarat Public Art Walk - Contemporary Art
Ballarat Public Art Walk - Contemporary Art
This walk will take you through central Ballarat and highlight the Contemporary Public Art works which belong to a much larger Public Art Collection of 120 artworks across Ballarat.
Summary
This walk will take you through central Ballarat and highlight the Contemporary Public Art works which belong to a much larger Public Art Collection of 120 artworks across Ballarat.
Description
This Contemporary Public Art Walk highlights a selection of artworks in central Ballarat that continues to tell the stories of earlier Public Art works.
Artworks such as the Camp Site Mural by Marley Smith and Billy Blackall celebrates the different Aboriginal nations that have made Ballarat their home.
While Open Monument celebrates the history of Chinese people in Ballarat from Goldrush times.
The Annexe Wall in Alfred Deakin Place is the home of temporary mural art that is changed annually. Nearby is Inge King's Grand Arch and Akio Makigawa's Point to the Sky.
The collection of contemporary art ranges from murals, sculpture, large and very small to etchings. Download the PDF of the Contemporary Public Art Walk here or pick up a printed version at the Ballarat Visitor Information Centre at the Ballarat Town Hall, Sturt Street.
829 Views
Points of Interest
1. Eternal Flame. 1995. By Peter Blizzard
Created as a marker of the end of WWII in the Pacific. Engraved into the bluestone shaped tile across the base of the statue is details about conflict areas where Australian Troops were active.
2. Goanna Ground (2006) Created by Diana Nikkelson
Created by Aunty Diana Nikkelson (Gunditjmara) and inspired by the artist’s totem, it is a tribute to the first artists of the region, the Wadawurrung people. Etched into basalt at the Art Gallery.
3. Annexe Wall, Alfred Deakin Place
The temporary public artwork wall off Police Lane, next door to the Art Gallery of Ballarat is changed annually, highlighting new and innovative public art. Image: 'Open Every Door', Briony Galligan
4. Grand Arch (2021) by Inge King.
Grand Arch is representative of King's sophisticated style of abstraction that reflected animal and plant forms through to planets and the cosmos. A 5m x 5m steel sculpture centrepiece.
5. Camp Site Mural (2020) by Marley Smith and Billy Blackall
Campsite features Bunjil (wedge-tailed eagle) the creator and spiritual leader for Aboriginal people of this land and Baarlijan (platypus) a representation of the local Aboriginal community.
6. Point to Sky (1999) by Akio Makigawa
Two stainless steel forms, a smaller more rectangle form and the towering geometric form, with seed pod shapes at the peak represent the house, & that home is a shelter and a place for gathering.
7. Incidents in Time (2011) by Jason Waterhouse
Located in Time Lane is a series of small, whimsical artworks tucked away in nooks and crannies. Miniature works capturing a moments in time from the banal, to the sublime, to the strange.
8. Main Road Mural (2018) by Travis Price
Depicting the pubs, traders, a fight club, Ballarat’s first Chinese restaurant & acknowledging the Wadawurrung people in the overcrowded, muddy streets in the mid-19thC now known as Main Road.
9. Open Monument (2015) by John Zerunge Young
Open Monument details some of the personal Chinese family memories of Ballarat from the goldrush forward. The 33 marble laser-etched panels include found images and texts.
Features
Public Transport
Playground
Picnic spot
Seating available
Public toilets
Pram friendly
Historical interest
Local treasures
Art and culture
Park / Garden
