With Sydneysiders and visitors alike thronging to view Quandamooka artist Megan Cope's monumental public artwork, Whispers, the Sydney Opera House has extended the exhibition until 26 November.
The extended dates coincide with DanceRites, Australia’s largest onsite and only national dance competition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups held on the Opera House Forecourt.
The Quandamooka artist was commissioned to create the installation as part of the Opera House's 50th birthday festival celebrations in October. Whispers consists of 200 timber poles – covered with more than 85,000 oyster shells – positioned across the Sydney Opera House precinct to evoke the ancestral midden sites that were used on the Tubowgule site, now known as Bennelong Point, for Aboriginal celebrations and gatherings for thousands of years.
“Not only is Megan a formidable artist, she is a storyteller. Megan has suffused oysters with symbolism and metaphor, recasting them as something worthy of our deep respect and recognition,” explains Sydney Opera House curator of contemporary art, Micheal Do.
“It’s been an immense privilege to stand alongside Megan as she realised her vision to punctuate the Opera House’s 50th anniversary in history, and to witness the innumerable visitors pass through and contemplate this exhibition. It’s deeply gratifying that we can invite even more people to experience for the first time or return to this spectacular artwork.”
First Nations history meets environmental consciousness in this architectural installation as it responds to the iconic Australian building while expanding the history of the site through material and form. In addition to the oyster shell-covered timber poles, the public artwork also features a 14-metre wall of shells framing the western side of the building under the Monumental Steps and emerging through the Upper Podium, where a large midden mound rests in front of Bennelong restaurant.
The creation of Whispers was a community effort with more than 3000 volunteers taking part in 100 workshops held over the past year across three key sites – the Opera House Forecourt, Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville, and the artist’s studio in Brisbane. Together, these volunteers have created a rich tapestry of shared narratives and kinships, elevating the humble oyster shell into a symbol of community, heritage and land.
To coincide with the extension, a new documentary about Whispers by award-winning Walbanga and Wadi Wadi film producer Alison Page has been released on the Opera House’s online streaming platform, Stream.
