Northern Irish expats in Australia are set to soon get a taste of home as construction has begun on a new sculpture which bares a striking resemblance to Belfast's iconic RISE sculpture on the Broadway Roundabout.
The new sculpture, which is being constructed on Sydney's M12 motorway near the new Western Sydney Airport will stand at 30 metres high, just short of Belfast's 'Balls of the Falls' which is 37.5 metres.
Sydney's sculpture will be named "The Great Emu in the Sky and is inspired by the Dharug people's dreaming story about the Great Emu constellation which tells the story of Mariong – the emu and mother – and how she became the Milky Way.
The sculpture has been designed through collaboration with local Aboriginal artists and the design firm Balariniji. It will eventually feature an emu's nest constructed from signature sticks representing the Western Sydney landscape and the six seasons observed by the Dharug community.
For Northern Irish expats, the sculpture will no doubt evoke memories of Belfast's RISE which features two spherical steel structures and was unveiled in 2011 above the Westlink, where it gained the nickname "The Balls of the Falls."
Designed by English artist Wolfgang Buttress, RISE is a representation of a new sun rising to celebrate a new chapter in the history of Belfast.
The inner sphere represents the sun rising over the bogs and the outer sphere represents the sun's halo, while the angled, steel supports are to represent the reeds of the bog meadows that extended more widely across the area before it was developed.
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English (United States) ·