Magic Circle in 1 Elizabeth - Photography: Brett Boardman
Magic Circle was commissioned for 1 Elizabeth and brings together the architecture of the natural world with distinctly man-made forms. In thinking about the new construction and functionality of this busy location, which includes the Martin Place Metro station deep in the ground below, the artists see parallels between the infrastructures we build to support human activity and those found in non-human societies.
Specifically, in Magic Circle the artists draw an analogy between the complexity of enormous ant nests and the modern city spaces that humans build. Both are interconnected with underground tunnels and emerge above ground as complex vertical structures.
When oriented horizontally, the sculpture alternatively resembles an inverted skate park, another human-made form with undulating curves not unlike ant mounds. The sense of play invoked by the suggestion of a skate park is furthered by the highly reflective polished stainless steel surface, which illuminates the space around us while also capturing pedestrian flux as people move about the precinct.
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Photography: Brett Boardman
In planning the work, Healy & Cordeiro made a considered response to the 1960s sculptural installations by Douglas Annand and Tom Bass that have also been incorporated into the site. The convex contours of Magic Circle reverse the organic, concave forms of Tom Bass’ Fountain, which also invoke the natural world, while its modern interpretation of relief sculpture pays homage to each of the nearby wall-mounted works by Douglas Annand.
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro began working together after sharing an exhibition space in 2001 and discovered that their modes of artistic inquiry and desired outcomes were clearly aligned. For over 20 years, they have been drawn not only to the material objectivity of our everyday world, but to the interstitial spaces between the visible and that which is hidden, between tangible, intuited and desired realities. Their work interrogates both the small stuff and the pipe dreams of human existence, often blending a sense of play with pointed social critique.
The duo has staged solo exhibitions in Berlin, Lyon, Washington DC, the Art Gallery of NSW and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Healy and Cordeiro’s installation Life Span was part of the Australian representation at the 53rd Venice Biennale. They have also participated in the Auckland Triennale, the Adelaide Biennial, and the Setouchi and Oku-Noto triennales in Japan. Public art commissions include Cloud Nation for the Green Square Library Tower (City of Sydney, 2012) and Place of the Eels (City of Parramatta, 2022). Ready-made Ruin, a monograph on their work by Felicity Fenner, was published by Formist in 2022.
