Art on Campus: USyd’s Lesser Known Artworks

By Jossie Warnant 

USyd is not a campus known for its public art installations. But if you look close enough you can notice a series of small, often unassuming artworks tucked away in corners across campus. Each artwork holds its own story about the relationship between education and art and often shares a unique connection to USyd. While it’s easy to walk right past these works without taking a second look, it’s important to pause and reflect on the myriad of unique art pieces that call USyd home. Here are a few of our favourites: 

Untitled 1986, Norbert Prangenberg (1986)

Situated on the engineering lawns, this artwork could be mistaken for an eclectic bench. In fact, it is the work of Norbert Prangenberg, an abstract painter and sculptor whose career spanned 30 years. Pangenberg’s work never attempted to conceal the hand of the artist, by glazing only parts of the work so that the raw materials show through. Prangenberg’s background as a gold and silversmith as well as a glassblower informed this approach, which leaves traces of the artist’s hands across the surface of the work. 

Individuals, Andrew Rogers (2013) 

USyd received Individuals, which is valued at $1.4 million as a gift in 2015. Known to be the most significant gift of sculpture by a living artist in Australia, the artwork is a metaphor for the relationship between singularity and community. Created by Andrew Rogers, one of the most recognised contemporary artists today, the artwork was first exhibited in New York in 2013. The location, outside USyd’s Law Building is significant with Roger’s reflecting on the lack of respect for the sanctity of individual life which we see in society today. The artwork features 15 sculptures of different heights with each one being similar, yet different. 

Mercury and Fortuna Statues, Jean Bologne (acquired 1952)

Peeking out above the flower-lined Vice-Chancellor’s garden, the two statues are likely to be French copies of the work of Italian Renaissance sculptor Giovanni Bologna. The works were originally auctioned off in Sydney in December 1887 and were later acquired by USyd from a row of shops on George Street West which were to be demolished. The statues make up part of one of the most notable collections to be sold to the University in the nineteenth century following an intervention of Allan Gamble, the University’s public relations officer and a noted architect and artist. 

Horse, Shona Nunan (1989)

This small, bronze horse figure which only stands about half a metre tall, is from what artist Shona Nunan calls her “elongation period”. The horse is a recurring theme in the Italy-based artist’s work, which looks at the horse and rider as a representation of the journey of life. The artwork lives in the Vice-Chancellor’s garden, which is home to a series of notable artworks at the University.

Ethics and Economics, Louis Haddad (2002)

Located outside the recently built Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building, Ethics and Economics pays tribute to the two often competing facets of economic studies. As an ex-economic lecturer Louis Haddad attempted to represent on one side of the work, the forces of production such as land, labour and capital and on the other side of the work, the nurturing aspect of economic activity. The piece aims to represent balance, integrating both economic and ethical concerns.