Bluewater Trail Public Art
Mackay Regional Council and Artspace Mackay proudly present one of the most significant public art developments in Australia – six art installations by Fiona Foley highlight the Bluewater Trail beside Mackay’s beautiful Pioneer River.
Fiona Foley is amongst Australia’s most experienced public art makers and this commission for Mackay sees a regional city earn its place on the world map for contemporary public art. Foley’s research and discussions with local communities in the Mackay region, the Indigenous Yuibera people and the Mackay-based South Sea Islander communities, inform and infiltrate these works. Her incorporation of local indigenous narratives, their exploration of some of the difficult histories of Mackay, has brought air and recognition to the dispossessed.
Foley was awarded this commission in 2008, the year of the Apology to the Stolen Generations from the Rudd Government. These works are prominent in Mackay, visible along the riverfront and to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic in Mackay’s City Centre. It is expected that they continue to relate narratives, past, present, and to become part of the future to those both local and visiting in one of Australia’s most vital and growing cities.
Top Images -
Clockwise from Top Left:
Fiona FOLEY
Crows 2009. Laser cut stainless steel. Bluewater Lagoon, Mackay, Queensland.
Yuwi 2009. Fabricated aluminium, wetspray finish. Bluewater Trail, Mackay, Queensland.
Fishbones 2009. Cast aluminium and mosaics. Bluewater Quay, Mackay, Queensland.
Mangrove cap 2009. Weathered Corten-steel, solar powered LED lights. Bluewater Trail, Mackay, Queensland.
Sugar cubes 2009. Box-formed sheet stainless steel with acid-etched lettering. Bluewater Quay, Mackay, Queensland.
Shields 2009. Water jet cut stone inlayed into paved surface. Bluewater Quay, Mackay, Queensland.
Mackay Regional Council Public Art Collection, Artspace Mackay.