Art Strategies
As architecture transforms values and aspirations into built form, public art expresses community identity and enhances human experience. It heightens our understanding of a place and our relationship to it, and reinforces the significance of local culture and context.
fjcplace’s commitment to art and to collaboration with artists has led to the commissioning of many important works. We lead the briefing, selection, procurement and installation of artworks for public and private clients.
We work with artists from the early phases of a project, allowing the time and flexibility to achieve the best outcome and the greatest synergy between architecture, landscape and artwork.
Ngarunga Nangama: Calm Water Dream, 200 George Street
Judy Watson’s foyer artwork. fjcplace prepared the Artist Appraisals, from which she was appointed from a shortlist of five Indigenous artists, and the detailed Artwork Brief.
Eora, King & Phillip Residences
Jacob Nash’s artwork at the corner of King and Phillip Streets, a symbolic gesture of unity and acknowledgement on the land of the Eora.
Country, The Harrington Collection
Jacob Nash’s plaza element in The Rocks, conceived as a contemporary midden that holds the stories of the past, present and future.
Underwood Ark, 200 George Street
Michael McIntyre’s foyer artwork, procured through the Public Art Strategy and Artwork Brief fjcplace developed with Mirvac and curator Hetti Perkins.
Windswept: Aquila Audux, Nunawading Community Hub
Brian Robinson’s suspended artwork, commissioned by Whitehorse City Council, tells the story of Bunjil the wedge-tailed eagle, with the approval of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
Interlude, Surry Hills Library and Community Centre
Robert Owen’s painted work for the atrium, commissioned through an ideas and design competition fjc ran for the City of Sydney.
Child of the Rocks, The Harrington Collection
Leonie Rhodes’s bronze sculpture, commissioned by fjcplace with UAP, takes its lines and textures from the sandstone wall beside it.
Ingress, The Concourse
Warren Langley’s suspended light installation in the upstairs foyer, a lateral interpretation of the concert hall chandelier.
Growth, Melton Library and Learning Hub
Solar-powered light blossoms, selected with a 1:25 physical model fjc built so the panel could assess each shortlisted maquette from key vantage points.
580 George Street Integrated Facade Art
Matthew Johnson’s frit facade artwork shifts with the light, with clear apertures set at a toddler’s eye level for the childcare above.
Our Approach
Public Art Strategies
We prepare public art strategy reports that set out the opportunities, benchmark typologies, and identify locations and themes for public art across a project, aligned with the client’s and council’s public art objectives. These may form part of a planning application or be key to a competition design.
Artwork Briefs
Detailed artwork briefs support each commission. At 200 George Street, site-specificity and cultural context guided the major foyer artwork to foster greater understanding of the history of the site. Equally, the King & Phillip commission, which resulted in Eora, supported a direct dialogue with the surrounding UNESCO World Heritage-listed colonial site.
Artist Selection
We prepare artist long and shortlists and appraisal frameworks, manage ideas and design competitions, and support selection panels. For Growth at Melton, a 1:25 maquette assisted the panel in assessing each scheme from key vantage points. Other formats have included renders and ideas presentations.
Design Development
As an integrated design studio, we support artists in developing works that link seamlessly with the architecture, landscape and interiors. We strive to create the best and most meaningful setting for each work, and help artists navigate the complexity of building projects, either by engaging directly in the making of the work or by working with curators and fabricators.
Coordination and Installation
We coordinate the structural, services, lighting and facade requirements of each artwork, and remain involved through fabrication and installation.
Collective Memory
Public art can curate collective memory, interpret local history and reorient how people move through a place, giving buildings and public spaces lasting meaning.
Annie Hensley leads the Country and Place Discipline at fjcstudio. For further information about our art strategy capability, please enquire by email. You can also explore our work with Country.