The City of Sydney’s 10th annual public art festival promises to create some imaginative, inspiring and interactive spaces in the laneways and backstreets of the CBD.

7 projects by Australian and international artists will hit the streets, changing the way the city is seen and lived.

“The dramatic contrast between street level art and the surrounding high-rise buildings really fires the imagination,” said Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP.

“The Laneway Art program shows how creative ideas can turn dark and unwelcoming lanes into intriguing and inviting places to linger.

“Over the last 5 years, bird cages, large scale video projections and infinity forests transformed our laneways.”

This year’s program is made up of a ’Magnificent Seven’ projects.

San Francisco’s Rebar (pictured above) will take over Bulletin Place with Bubbleway, a modular inflatable furniture system to foster informal social interaction.

Brook Andrew’s Donut, in Bridge Lane, will bring a graphic black and white matrix to the surrounding heritage architecture, hanging high over the heads of passers-by.

Tank Stream Way will be home to new work by San Francisco-based graffiti legend Barry McGee, and Austin’s Magda Sayeg will give Sussex Lane a guerrilla knitting makeover.

Isidro Blasco will create a parallel world in the form of an optical illusion in Market Row.  

Peri[pheral]scope by Heidi Axelson, Hugo Moline and Adriano Pupilli will transform Skittle Lane, and Sarah Langdon and Emma Pike will bring their Amazing Rolling Picture Show to various lanes across the CBD, creating intimate installation spaces that will pop up each week.

Peri[pheral]scope – artists’ concept.

The Laneway Art Program runs from 23 September to 31 January 2012. It’s all part of an initiative to promote collaboration between different players in the community, contributing to the City of Sydney’s Sydney 2030 scheme.

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Images courtesy of City of Sydney

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