Stories
Tree of Life
Bharti Kher – Public Art Commission
‘Just as Powerhouse Parramatta serves first and foremost as a meeting place — both harkening to the site’s past where the mountain and coastal people communed and also as a modern-day cultural hub for Sydneysiders of all backgrounds — Tree of Life embodies an artistic message of commonality and an ode to nature.’
Powerhouse Parramatta Commission: Sacred Tree Sculpture
Internationally acclaimed British Indian contemporary artist Bharti Kher has been commissioned by Powerhouse to create a large-scale public artwork for Powerhouse Parramatta.
Titled Tree of Life, the 7 m tall bronze sculpture represents Kher’s interpretation of the sacred tree, one of the most ancient images from Indian mythology, which in Hindu religious texts is described as a conscious being providing protection.
Conceived as a spirit work rather than a narrative one, the heads of ancestors are layered within the symbolism of the Tree of Life. Families are connected together to recollect histories and memories as they grow and adapt over time.
‘The totem — or rather the spirit it embodies — represents a bond of unity but also an Axis Mundi for Powerhouse Parramatta — a connection between the living and spiritual worlds. An homage to the place that humans inhabit within the natural world and the mythologies born from it.
