Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney

In the loch
blood stricken
time hidden lay lost
under this place of birth
under your mind lies a tunnel
under this stone salty darkness
forgotten place of docks and ships.

"Sydney's buried history you'll never get to see.
The historian Grace Karskens was incredulous. The Museum of Contemporary Art intended marking the nation's oldest dockyard buried beneath the gallery's $53 million extension with an arrow pointing to concrete. Andrew, a contemporary artist of Wiradjuri and Scottish descent, whose flashing arrow will be unveiled at the museum's re-opening this month, said it would help to make the history visible. Drawing on an indigenous shield design, the arrow's zig-zag black and white pattern would be animated in LED lights, creating a hypnotic effect and drawing attention to the site from as far as the Opera House, he said. ''It's a pretty significant reference … the LED is a strong light source, so you are going to be drawn to it,'' he said. His words, inspired by archaeological reports on the dockyard and by his heritage, will be laser cut into the ground below the arrow."  SMH 17 March 2012

Visit other Weekends in Black and White.