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Devonshire St Subway Central Railway Sydney 1987
A series of eight mural panels by Public Art Squad
Artist team: David
Humphries, Rodney Monk, Ashley Taylor, Zig Moskwa
Commissioned by State Rail Authority.1987
Public Art
Squad's eight murals in the busy Devonshire Street pedestrian tunnel under Sydney's busy Central Station areseen by 1000s of people everyday.
The Devonshire Street tunnel, once the bain of commuters with its
drab, graffiti scarred walls, it was a hideous rundown gloomy and threatening environment where people behaved in an anti-social way. It was not a safe place.
In an endeavour to solve the problem and
ease the journey for weary commuters
the NSW Rail Authority, as part of a $600,000 refurbishment program consulted PAS
who proposed that by introducing a program of mural art into the subway you
change that environment in such a way that and it actually changes the way people behave there. They have been proved right
''We understood that as there is such a wide range of people who use this tunnel we wanted the murals to appeal to an
equally wide range of tastes''
The carefully chosen images combine ecological respect for the natural environment, through landscape, a collaboration
with Aboriginal artist Banduk Marika, familiar images of trains from the past and present, with the whimsy, escapism and entertainment of the buskers.
Their survival against all odds demonstrated
public respect for the artworks. The subsequent beneficial modification of subway behaviour patterns is powerful evidence of the value and effectiveness of art as a public welfare tool.
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