Urban imagination, creative collaborations: 50 years of Kaldor Public Arts Projects

In 1969, one hundred workers spent 17,000 hours wrapping one million square feet of fabric along a 1.5 mile section of the Australian coastline, bringing to life Kaldor Public Arts Projects’ first large-scale public artwork in collaboration with artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Coast or Project 1.

“[Wrapped Coast] literally changed my life,” says John Kaldor, founder of Kaldor Public Art Projects (KPAP). “If I can manage and direct the wrapping of a coastline, I realized I can manage anything.”

In the five decades since Wrapped Coast, Kaldor has expanded the most important role he could play, building on this foundation of ground-breaking art projects in public spaces with 33 more site-specific works throughout KPAP’s 50-year history.

Now, KPAP celebrates its golden anniversary with a future looking retrospective, Making Art Public: 50 Years of Kaldor Public Arts Projects, created by British artist, Michael Landy and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Making Art Public is an ephemeral, interactive set of celebrations, incorporating performances, audience participation, and new ways of experiencing the archives of KPAP’s 34 works.

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ support for Making Art Public marks the ninth Kaldor Public Art Project the organization has supported over the course of their longstanding partnership. Both Bloomberg Philanthropies and KPAP have a shared commitment to developing innovative public art – both inside and outside of museums – that engages local and global communities. That ethos is exhibited through other recent Bloomberg Philanthropies’ supported KPAP projects, including Asad Raza (Project 34), Anri Sala (Project 33), and Jonathan Jones (Project 32). The globally touring 13 Rooms (also supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies) further expands takes that shared commitment internationally.

“Public art can help us see urban challenges in a new light, imagine new solutions that can have a lasting impact, and stimulate reactions to key social issues,” says Yuki Noguchi, who helps manage cultural programs in Asia Pacific for Bloomberg’s Corporate Philanthropy team.

Aboriginal artist Jonathan Jones created a monumental installation for KPAP with 15,000 white shields on the site of another long-term Bloomberg Philanthropies partner, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. His barrangal dyara (skin and bones) recalled the 19th-century Garden Palace building before it tragically burned to the ground along with countless aboriginal objects collected along the colonial frontier.

“[Skin and bones] is a horrific story of loss, yet Jonathan used this artwork to celebrate indigenous cultures and languages in Australia,” says Noguchi, who points to the enduring impact of the original 2016 work. “It changed the views of many of us — our employees, clients, and general public, and we have become more aware of the problems around the loss of indigenous culture, and started thinking more about how we can show our respect, and start our reconciliation journey with indigenous Australians.”

Bloomberg’s first volunteer program in support of indigenous communities involved helping Jonathan Jones and KPAP plant kangaroo grass at the Royal Botanic Garden. Today, almost all of Bloomberg’s philanthropic programs in Sydney aim to support indigenous Australians through programs that include education, home renovation and the cultivation of native gardens in indigenous communities, and the support of indigenous artists.

At a recent preview of Kaldor’s Making Art Public, 200 clients, their guests, and employees of the firm took a literal taste of the new artwork Five Feastables by artist Miralda, a sensory interpretation of KPAP’s five decades. This edible rainbow of tastes was made from such native ingredients as saltbush. Other highlights included a blue elixir that tasted “just like champagne,” as well as a purple, sushi-like canape topped with bush ants. Guests left with scarves fashioned from the imagery of his newly-imagined work in celebration of half a century of KPAP.

For Kaldor, the anniversary is another in a set of countless experiences in his celebration of, and singular focus on, bringing performances and conceptual works out of museums and into ever bigger and more popular imaginations.

Making Art Public: 50 Years of Kaldor Public Art Projects runs until February 16, 2020 and can be found at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Entry is free.