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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Indian artist Bharti Kher is creating a monumental, multi-headed bronze sculpture to serve as an official public \u201cwelcome\u201d to the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta, as the museum makes its pitch to become a global tourism attraction.<\/p>\n Months ahead of the museum\u2019s grand opening, details have been unveiled on Kher\u2019s Tree of Life, one of four major international major artworks or installations destined for the taxpayer-funded museum, which when opened later this year will be Australia\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n The seven-metre-tall bronze takes its inspiration from the sacred tree as a symbol of life and Indian mythology, and rises 1\u00bd metres higher than its sister sculpture, Ancestor, temporarily installed in New York\u2019s Central Park in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Australian work is now being cast in 30 parts of bronze in a Melbourne foundry. Once completed in August, it will be trucked to Sydney and installed on the museum\u2019s entry plaza, greeting visitors approaching from the railway station.<\/p>\n The Kher work will stand in place for three years, its $700,000 cost inclusive of an artist\u2019s fee, construction and installation.<\/p>\n Powerhouse chief executive Lisa Havilah defended the decision to extend the commission to an international artist, rather than a local or First Nations practitioner, noting Kher\u2019s status as one of India\u2019s most significant contemporary voices, and the museum\u2019s international reach.<\/p>\n A First Nations \u201clandscape\u201d was under construction on the riverfront, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs western Sydney\u2019s first cultural institution, we will program in a very local way; we will program across NSW, nationally and internationally,\u201d Havilah said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work and this artist signifies the international ambition of the project and the international connection of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n The museum\u2019s leadership came in for strong criticism from the Public Service Union and other groups during a parliamentary inquiry hearing last December for drifting into the realm of arts, fashion, culture and performance, rather than the applied arts and sciences with focus on engineering and technology. Havilah disputes the museum is straying from its legislative mandate and says it is developing programs that balance science and the applied arts.<\/p>\n Kher\u2019s credits include the 59th Venice Biennale and a massive mural featuring three-metre bindis that is now wrapping the Hayward Gallery on London\u2019s South Bank. Tree of Life will stand even taller than Ancestor, Kher\u2019s 24-headed \u201cuniversal mother\u201d figure installed at the entrance of New York\u2019s Central Park in 2022 and now residing in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.<\/p>\n The Parramatta artwork is positioned next to a Monterey cypress, a tree retained from the grounds of the former Italianate villa Willow Grove that was controversially removed<\/a> to make way for the museum\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n This juxtaposition is intended to symbolise Parramatta\u2019s evolution from a \u201cpast steeped in colonial ideals\u201d towards a future that embraces global diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very, very strong building, and its quite perpendicular and massive,\u201d Kher said.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to make a large tree like a totem. You can\u2019t compete with the building \u2026 and you can\u2019t compete with nature either.\u201d<\/p>\n City of Parramatta had initially encouraged a mosaic for the location, but the museum opted for Kher\u2019s multidisciplinary approach, which famously weaves daily rituals and \u201cmagical realism\u201d into monumental forms.<\/p>\n Related Article Tree of Life is Kher\u2019s first Australian commission and her largest public artwork to date. Kher says that her works play with \u201chybrid jinns, shamans, trickster, and they talk about the multiplicity of the self, that you can be so many things; that this life, in some way, is a dance between mind and body, between positive and negative, between earth and sky, nature and human\u201d. She said she hoped the installation would become a gathering place.<\/p>\n \u201cI always think about the children when I make my work, how they\u2019ll respond to it. They\u2019ll touch it first,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ll look up into the eyes of the small girl, and they\u2019ll see themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction giant Lendlease has completed the primary construction of Powerhouse Parramatta \u2013 the most significant cultural infrastructure project in NSW since the Sydney Opera House. Lendlease remains onsite to complete St George\u2019s Terrace, public foyers and outdoor landscaping.<\/p>\n Once open, the institution will offer more than 18,000 square metres of public space across seven exhibition areas, including Australia\u2019s largest-volume column-free space.<\/p>\n Apart from Kher\u2019s work, the museum will feature Britain\u2019s Es Devlin in Presentation Space Six and a connected work on its outdoor terrace. Thai artist Torlarp Larpjaroensook has created a large-scale reinterpretation of space voyage for Presentation Space One, which will also feature a walk-in installation by US artist James Turrell.<\/p>\n The museum said that further international and Australian works would be announced in coming months.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Bharti](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/63620f2a3a3297eeba2e9c15c6b879c2b6522268.jpeg\")
Bharti Kher with the foundation parts of Tree of Life.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2bbe5da13b6645aed420013cee08f104131b9568.jpeg\")
An artist\u2019s impression of Tree of Life in place at the Parramatta Powerhouse.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b572daebdb09dc44705c40ff1afb5dcc838d45ef.jpeg\")
The rising form of Kher\u2019s Tree of Life. Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"Bharti](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5c9f895f3ef78315b9e5cf220881058f828be088.jpeg\")
Bharti Kher\u2019s The Skin Speaks a Language All its Own, at Queensland\u2019s Gallery of Modern Art. <\/p>\n![\"Parramatta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f3ed2f824e0facd72129e266efa9ff5e3f7eee12.jpeg\")
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