New Metro Tunnel artwork raises awareness of threatened species

If you take a peek down Scott Alley off Degraves St as you go about your day in the CBD, you might notice a colourful – and wild – addition.

To coincide with Threatened Species Day on September 7, the Metro Tunnel Creative Program has unveiled a new artwork in Scott Alley – A Fleeting Sense Of – by artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison.

The digital collage seeks to raise awareness of threatened species in this work, which includes a pair of swift parrots, a southern greater glider, a brush-tailed rock wallaby, a family of eastern barred bandicoots and an “inspection” of Poolika (New Holland mouse). It includes images from the National Gallery and State Library collections, along with beautiful foil detail that can be seen from any part of the alley due to its UV reflection.

“We wanted to make the work (centred on) Threatened Species Day and around certain species – how different species might perceive the world. The foil is a playful interpretation of what it might be like to see UV light in the way parrots and various other birds can,” Haby said.

“It’s at the end of the alley, so we wanted a nice visual, an enticement that might draw you down the lane.”

Today more than 2000 species of plant, animal and ecological communities including more than 590 animals are officially listed as threatened.

It’s a subject matter both Haby and Jennison deeply care about, as both artists and wildlife carers who run a wildlife shelter together. The two have been collaborating since 1999.

“The shelter is also our studio, and we see (making art and caring for wildlife) as one and the same,” Jennison said.

“So, we’re trying to make work that’s about what all our individual roles are in reciprocating with nature, and that’s about the fact that we’re all interconnected in our responsibility to each other – non-human as well as human.”

The different animals that we look after, they’ve taught us about seeing the world through their eyes … how to think about what plants they need to eat, and what shelter they need and how much water they need … all these sorts of connections … and we try to put all that into our work.

“Hopefully we inspire people to think about what their role in a solution would be.”

The Metro Tunnel Creative Program curates artworks and events to enhance Melbourne city life alongside the construction of the city-shaping project.

The focus of the program is to encourage community interaction with construction sites and support local businesses at the coalface between where site work and city life begins.

The Metro Tunnel is the biggest transformation of Melbourne’s rail network in more than 40 years and will free up capacity in the City Loop to run more trains more often across more lines.

Check out A Fleeting Sense Of in Scott Alley now. •