by Nicole Monks
Linear Park at Kirrang Street, Beverly Hills
It was about reimaging what time would have been like for Mob back then and the things that they would have connected with that we can still connect with today... looking up to the skies and seeing rainbows.
Nicole Monks’ artist-designed playground is a tribute to the Local Mob – the Gadigal, Bidjigal and Gwegal - Water People who swam, hunted and fished with their children in bark canoes on the local waterways.
The artwork is to acknowledge the women on the waterways of Gadigal, Bidjigal and Gwegal country that stretches from the Canal to the Creek.
The interpretive playscape encourages learning and interacting with the landscape through play. It takes the form of a long, fluid line of movement, referencing the elemental flow of Wolli Creek and Cooks River. The bright, colourful palette connects us to sky and waranggu: rainbow. This Indigenous perspective of place is expressed in a contemporary form that brings together communities of children from all cultures to play, learn and grow.
waranggu is designed for imaginative and non-prescriptive play experiences like climbing, hanging, walking, crawling, running, swinging and resting.
Nicole Monks is a trans-disciplinary artist of Yamatji Wajarri, Dutch and English heritage. Living and practicing in Redfern, Monks is informed by her cross-cultural identity and her work takes its focus from storytelling, as a way to connect the past with the present and future. Her designs take a conceptual approach, often embedded with narratives, and aim to promote cross-cultural understanding and communication. A designer by trade, Monks crosses artforms to work with furniture and objects, textiles, video, installation and performance.
Her designs take a conceptual approach, often embedded with narratives, and aim to promote cross-cultural understanding and communication.
Across these varied forms of contemporary art and design, her work reflects Aboriginal philosophies of sustainability, innovation and collaboration. With adeptness and sensitivity, Monk’s practice weaves together Aboriginal history and philosophy with contemporary Western thought and resonates with a wide Australian audience. In addition to her solo practice, Monks is also well known for her success as a collaborative artist and as founder of blackandwhite creative.
In 2016, Monks won the Marika Memorial 3D Art Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin, Northern Territory, and is the recipient of the 2016 Arts NSW Design Mentorship Program. She is currently on the Design Advisory Panel for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) and has been Committee Member and President on the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Young Members Committee.
These resources have been designed by experienced Visual Arts educators to support students and teachers studying and delivering the NSW syllabus for Visual Arts, and are tailored to Stage 4 and Stage 5.
Stage 6 teachers may also consider some of the artist studies for their students.
