The artwork taking flight above one of Sydney's busiest metro stations

Sydney Morning Herald

4 days ago

The finished artwork, The Seeds of Flight, is open to the public. Completed in the past few months, it reflects his fascination with alternative flight methods. It also captures the dream of floating free from fossil fuels, batteries, lithium, solar panels, helium and hydrogen, which is the goal of Aerocene, the non-profit foundation he initiated.
Inspired by Alexander Graham Bell's tetrahedral kite experiments, these sculptures don't just look like they can fly; earlier models have taken flight.
The colours are those of the Australian bush, developed with Matt Poll, manager of Indigenous programs at the Australian Maritime Museum.
Saraceno said it was an 'artwork that drifts along the rivers of the wind, suspended like stars and planets carrying constellations of life's seeds through the universe … it attempts to remind us that we are all on board this Mother Earth'.
'Together with spores, spiders, birds, eucalyptus trees, can humans also float freely, without lithium or fossil fuels?
'In the interest of the trillions of inhabitants who would like to keep journeying around the sun, might we choose orbits of solidarity over extraction?'
Connecting science with art, Saraceno has brought together musicians, scientists, aerospace engineers, ballooning experts, physicists, kite makers and Indigenous elders to reimagine and reinvent our relationship with the air and the earth.
Saraceno's interest in spiders resulted in major installations at Tasmania's MONA and Britain's Tate Modern, where his installation Web(s) of Life received rave reviews.
As well as major exhibitions and installations, Saraceno has done an international space program at NASA's Ames Centre, studied with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales, Paris, and continues to work with the MIT Centre for Art, Science and Technology in Cambridge.
Saraceno founded Arachnophilia, an interdisciplinary research community with MIT and the Max Planck Institute, and recorded the vibrations of spider webs. He then invited musicians to jam with the sounds, to unveil their hidden musicality.
He also created the Spider Web Scan – a laser-supported tomographic method – to study the architecture of their webs.
Aerocene has broken records for solar-powered flight. In January 2020, Aerocene Pacha piloted by Leticia Noemi Marqués set 32 records for solar-powered flights recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
An interview with Saraceno is like being carried along a jet stream. Was he an artist or a scientist? 'I am a little bit of everything,' he said.
Saraceno abhors the myth of the lone genius, detests Elon Musk's Starlink with its reliance on fossil fuels, and says the only way to change the world is through collaboration.
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Single disciplines cannot solve problems such as climate change, global warming and inequality. 'So why don't we try to weave or work together in different ways?'
Seeds of Flight, developed by Investa on behalf of Oxford Properties Group and Mitsubishi Estate Asia, took more than two years to design and produce following a 13-month selection process led by curator Barbara Flynn.