After several collaborations in Parramatta, Melbourne and Brisbane, Deloitte engaged Art Pharmacy to curate a striking bespoke art collection for their new offices in the Sydney CBD.
Drawing on Deloitte’s core values of innovation, adaptability, sustainability, inclusivity and open-mindedness, this art collection will tell the story of Deloitte through ideas of regeneration and invigoration. It is a purposeful kaleidoscope of different ideas, textures and mediums created by a diverse community of talented artists and storytellers.
Inspired by the overarching theme of regeneration, developed by the Deloitte Digital team, Art Pharmacy curated an extensive selection of innovative, Sydney-based artists with conversation-starting work and avant-garde practices for the Deloitte Sydney team to choose from.
The award-winning Quay Quarter Tower is designed as a world-first vertical village that redefines the future of work and sits as a transformative statement on Sydney’s skyline. With some of the best views of Sydney Harbour, Quay Quarter Tower is focused on promoting interaction and human connections through synergetic spaces and smart technology, to better advance business success.
This project was a purposeful kaleidoscope of different ideas by a diverse group of 20 Sydney-based artists and storytellers. An eclectic mix of established to emerging artists, the collection showcases the uniqueness of Sydney’s art scene and its future with many of the artists being under the age of 35.
Female-identifying artists make up 62% of the collection, while a further 33% are First Nations artists and 24% are culturally and linguistically diverse artists. Each artwork has been carefully selected and curated to make a statement and start bold conversations, celebrating the site, the locale of Circular Quay and the region of Sydney at large.
Sydney is a multifaceted place, brimming with unique stories, ideas, experiences and people – the art of this collection seeks to bring these to life. This collection is united by two commonalities in the artists – a deep-rooted connection to Sydney, either from birth, work, bloodline or base; and a distinct and avant-garde attitude to their medium and method of production.
Billy Ryan’s photograph of the Tarpeian Way brings a sense of fantasy to the familiar landscape, while Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler capture the topography of Sydney Harbour through charcoal relief.
Giorgia McRae’s sandstone and steel sculptures are reminiscent of the juxtaposition between Sydney sandstone and the Harbour Bridge, while Camie Lyons’ bronze sculpture is cast from eucalyptus branches from around Sydney Harbour.
The featured artists are masters of their medium, and manipulate their materials in a way that is innovative, unexpected and deeply process-driven.
From Kai Wasikowski’s photographs that combine artificial intelligence with film, to Jessie French’s invented medium of an algae-based bioplastic, to Orson Heidrich’s die-pressed brass impressions, to Yukupin’s translation of water reflections onto a vinyl-wrapped wall – this collection is a celebration of cutting edge technologies and processes.
Kien Situ, uses Chinese Mò ink in his work, “a material that is ancient, murky, personal and historical with a material that is industrial, brutal, precise and has a faceless kind of modernity to it. They fight and challenge one another, and the result feels both explosive and petrified at once. A kind of perfect tension.”
The creation of artwork for a corporate collection has proven advantageous for the artists involved, as expressed by Yukupin (Toby Bishop): “I think it’s deadly being able to have my work within a corporate setting, I hope it can bring a sense of peace within the work environment, sparking a similar feeling to being out in the bush; looking, listening and connecting to the natural world…and the running waters surrounding Sydney to the Gadigal people, and surrounding mobs of the Eora Nation.”
“I think it’s deadly being able to have my work within a corporate setting, I hope it can bring a sense of peace within the work environment, sparking a similar feeling to being out in the bush; looking, listening and connecting to the natural world”
– Yukupin (Toby Bishop)
Similarly, Evi O’s installation ‘Chromaportal’ has natural elements throughout, with flower petals, rippling caterpillar and abstract sound waves, designed to create “a physical reminder that a majority part of our human nature is in the natural world and that we shouldn’t stray too far from that.”
This project produced a high-quality, meaningful and uplifting art collection that brings light to a multitude of diverse stories celebrating Sydney’s local identity. Art consultant, Art Pharmacy and Deloitte hope that this bespoke art collection will inspire curiosity and reflection within the new Deloitte office spaces.
Deloitte is shaped by its context, by the people we bring together, the communities we impact and the culture we foster. Through countless passages of generation and regeneration, this collection presents a timeless display of what it means to be on Gadigal land.
