{"id":772881,"date":"2026-07-01T21:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772881\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T21:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:18:16","slug":"artist-mikala-dwyer-reveals-her-barangaroo-sculpture-monuments-for-fishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772881\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Mikala Dwyer reveals her Barangaroo sculpture Monuments for Fishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Staring at the 23-metre sculptures bobbing on the waterfront of Watermans Cove at Barangaroo South, artist Mikala Dwyer recalls the moment she began creating the structures 14 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in my studio … and I had a fishbowl with some fishing floats sitting in it,\u201d Dwyer says. \u201cMy engineer friend came in and took one look at it and said, \u2018Yeah, we can make that\u2019, and that was the beginning of a wonderful adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist Mikala Dwyer in front of her artwork, titled Monuments for Fishes, at Waterman\u2019s Cove, in Barangaroo, Sydney.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

The five sculptures, titled Monuments for Fishes, are crafted from carbon fibre, fibreglass and steel \u2013 the same materials used for yachts. Each one stands vertically and sways with the tides, winds and currents.<\/p>\n

Having enlisted the help of more than 100 specialists \u2013 including engineers, shipwrights, spray-painters, steel welders and machinists \u2013 and travelling north from Nowra with the sculptures over a few months, Dwyer has begun to see the artwork as a group of living beings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking of them as a group of beings in a way that they look precarious \u2026 they\u2019re so tall and spindly, and they float and they wobble,\u201d she says, adding that despite their fragile appearance, the structures are strong and durable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one was shaped so it would be different \u2026 [and] has its own character, but they\u2019re really designed to be inseparable as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DwyerDwyer says her artwork, which lights up at night, pays homage to Indigenous women who fished along the cove well before colonisation.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

Dwyer says that behind the colourful sculptures is a lot of engineering. In addition to the length of each structure, there is a 15-metre pylon driven through the clay and sandstone below the ocean floor, followed by 15 metres rising through the water where it connects to the artwork that sits on the surface.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Sparks, founder of Event Engineering, has helped steer the project alongside Dwyer since 2013. He says the team used 3D drawings of the Barangaroo South precinct to determine the most immersive vantage points for the artwork.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis was crucial to optimise its public view in the cove with low and high tides, winter and summer light,\u201d Sparks says, adding that the next step was choosing the best materials. \u201cFibreglass [was the] clear marine environmental winner, with lifeguard vessels in the United States still in service 100 years after manufacture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new public artwork \u2013 one of the largest floating and kinetic artworks in the world \u2013 was commissioned by Lendlease together with Infrastructure NSW for Barangaroo\u2019s public and cultural art plan. It is the fifth permanent artwork so far.<\/p>\n

Dwyer says her artwork, which lights up at night, pays homage to the Indigenous women who fished along the cove well before colonisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose amazing fisherwomen from this area used to go and fish at night on these really little delicate boats,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d have a fire going and have a baby on one boob, and they\u2019d be fishing, in the dark, inky night \u2026 when I started looking at this area and researching history, that was pretty inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"KaylaKayla Olaya<\/a> is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-772881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}