The Sanctuary: A Feathered Adventure in Light at Wagga Wagga NSW

It is widely accepted that ‘Wagga’ means ‘crow’ and to create the plural, the Wiradjuri people repeat the word. Thus Wagga Wagga translates as ‘the place of many crows’, and inspired our artist residency (A feathered adventure in flight) in Wagga Wagga NSW to create ‘The Sanctuary’.

Illuminart were engaged in this Public Art commission by Wagga Wagga City Council, and commenced with a series of workshops where local community members visited the Marrambidya Wetlands to discover local bird species and participated in art workshops to draw and paint local birds and represent their stories.

 

CSU animation students joined the project, developing animation skills to make the bird artworks ‘fly’. Whether they were an ornithologist illustrator enthralled by the intricacies of bird markings or just a doodler fascinated by the gracefulness of flight, the participants contributed to an original animated artwork.

Wagga Wagga’s Wollundry Lagoon precinct was illuminated by the commissioned digital artworks Rural Type Exchange by Tonya Meyrick and The Sanctuary by Cindi Drennan (illuminart) and collaborators, every evening from 9 December 2020 to 11 January 2021.