A POWERFUL wave of public art is sweeping over Tamworth, shedding light on some local history.
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A number of electrical substations in the CBD have become the latest canvasses for the Tamworth Regional Art Collective.
The collective has been commissioned to create an artistic homage to the city’s mantle as the birthplace of electric street lighting in Australia ahead of City of Light celebrations on November 9.
The collective’s mural on the corner of Bourke and Peel streets tells the story of the value of light to the Gamilaraay people.
“We’ve gone into the past and the original people here, the Gamilaraay people, and some of their stories and dreamings about light and fire and the sources of light and how they used that in traditional ways,” artist Joanne Stead said.
“One of the stories is about the light within us.
“So the Aboriginal character on this box is blowing that light out into the world and up into the sky.”
The collective is also working on substation murals in front of Parry House, on Peel St, and in Bicentennial Park.
The project will also see some NBN boxes trransformed with new designs.
“With the NBN boxes, we’ve taken a lot of the resources that the Powerstation museum has,” Ms Stead said.
The NBN work would feature posters created around the time of the switch to electric light; a period which was marked with some cynicism and scepticism toward the new technology, Ms Stead says.
“There was a lot of cynicism about it and people didn’t think it made that much of a difference because they had the gas lighting and they were spending all of this money on electrical lighting,” she said.
“Some people thought it was too bright and didn’t like it.
“Other people though it was going to give them some sort of mutation or whatever.
“There was lots of funny posters that discount that it was going to turn people into monsters or aliens or whatever.”
This year’s City of Light celebrations will feature a “mini-Vivid” experience, with a projection show set to bring some of the public artworks to life.
The substation murals are the latest public artworks taken-on by the collective, whose work has featured The Youthie, Bicentennial Park, Hopscotch Cafe and the Adventure Playground.
Jacob McArthur
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
