The City of Sydney local government authority has developed a ‘Hoardings Policy’ to manage street-facing hoardings used to screen and protect the public from building developments around the city.

The council saw an opportunity to re-purpose and reinterpret these hoarding spaces as public artworks, enhancing the public domain and making a meaningful contribution to ‘Creative City’ Sydney. Commissioned to contribute a series of pieces, which would use these hoardings as a blank canvas, was brand and design studio HOLT.

The response from HOLT was to draw upon the ‘Concrete Art’ abstractionist movement, which was first introduced by Theo van Doesburg in his ‘Manifesto of Concrete Art’ in 1930: “Abstractionism must be free of any symbolical association with reality…lines and colours are concrete by themselves”.

HOLT created a series of eight compositions incorporating geometric elements and simple flat colour to engage with the public and contrast the immediate environment.

HOLT
holtdesign.com.au

City of Sydney
cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

Creative City Sydney
creativecitysydney.com.au