CITY OF SYDNEY 2021 LANEWAYS TEMPORARY PUBLIC ART PROGRAM

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Adam Norton, Giant Badges, 2021

Curator / producer: Claire Taylor

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In this laneway project Adam Norton has mounted a series of slogans in the form of giant badges onto existing lampposts in Barrack St. The badges have an immediate sense of nostalgia to them, but their bright, pop construction placed in the present city centre creates new twisted meanings.

Adam’s work draws on archival materials that articulate imagined futures and the sources for Giant Badges span apocalyptic sci-fi films, pop and counterculture. The badges speak directly to the uncanniness of how the climate and public health emergencies we have been living through in 2020 have been prefigured for decades – to the point that our current reality feels stranger than science fiction.

Slogans such as ‘Future Shock’ signal the individual and collective psychological states these emergencies have propelled us into and how deeply unsettling the rapid changes have been.

The candy colours, bold fonts and simple graphics make the artworks pop in the street, catching the eyes of passersby. The phrases in this new series are a direct response to our current circumstances. They still read as badges, despite their huge scale.

According to Noelle Faulkner, the badge, unlike a stamp, doesn’t centre itself on the act of creation, only the message it glorifies. It imbues the wearer with an inordinate amount of meaning. In this project, a city laneway wears the badges, celebrating the ethos of social, creative and cultural times past and our longing for them to return again.

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Artist: Adam Norton

Adam Norton’s work explores the effects of technology on the human condition. He repurposes scientific ideas from the recent past and the near future to map out the psychogeography of our present. His eccentric devices are a prism through which to look at the conflicts and controversies of the era. He uses paint, print, film and installation to present the most interesting narratives and ideas about our present condition and where we might be heading. He uses technology and science fiction as a narrative architecture for his ideas about our role in the universe.

Curator and producer: Claire Taylor

Production and installation: SIGNWAVE Newtown

Many thanks to Glenn Wallace and Marcia Aqui at the City of Sydney as well as Metal4U, Signfix Australia and Who Dares.

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In response to the Covid-19 pandemic the City of Sydney invited thinkers and artists to create temporary public artworks that enliven our civic spaces.

They received a huge 230 responses from more than 200 artists. After much deliberation the evaluation panel recommended the proposals from 4 artist teams.

The selected artworks represent four very different responses to the artist brief. But together they provide bold, fresh and meaningful ways to reimagine city spaces and encourage Sydneysiders to rethink and revisit their city.

The City Art Laneways temporary public art program runs from January to July 2021.

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Adam Norton is represented by Galerie pompom.

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