Concrete Playground

Because it’s kind of a big deal, you’ve probably already heard about artist Tatzu Nishi’s (alias Tazro Niscino alias Tatsurou Bashi alias Tatzu Oozu) War and peace and in between. You have right? The Kaldor project enclosing Gilbert Bayes’ two equestrian sculptures outside the Art Gallery of New South Wales? Yeh, cool, thought so. Awesome.

Nishi has a habit of altering public monuments. Using the addition of domestic spaces, he re-contextualises the familiar and in doing so affects the way we look at objects and spaces we’ve encountered so many times before that their details have become no longer apparent – street light for a reading lamp anyone? 

Nishi’s work cuts through the apathetic haze that comes with over-familiarity. So it’s a little bit exciting to find out he actually has two Sydney projects opening in October. In addition to War and peace and in between, Nishi has a self-titled show at Roslyn Oxley9 from October 3. Double yes.

But wait there's more ... you can also hear the artist discuss his work at a free public talk at the AGNSW on October 2 from 1-2.30pm.