South Bank Parklands

Client: South Bank Corporation
Artist: Natalie Billing

Brecknock Consulting was engaged by South Bank Corporation to curate and project manage a public art commission for River Quay, a riverfront recreational greenspace within the South Bank Parklands in Brisbane. Our curatorial approach, developed in consultation with the design team - Cardno S.P.L.A.T. landscape design and Arkhefield architects – explored public artwork as an integrated inscription within the landscape which could poetically evoke layers of history and the changing tidal levels of the river. The resulting artwork, Time & Tide, by Brisbane-based artist Natalie Billing is a three-part poem of text and visual motifs. Cast into the concrete terraces within the greenspace, and engraved on the timber-planks lining an upper deck area, the poems include site-specific references to the area from Indigenous ownership through European settlement, to the establishment of Brisbane and the South Bank Parklands. As a testament to the mighty forces of time and tide, the artwork achieves an even keener resonance through the recent experience of flood, offering rich food for thought in this significant and once again beautiful setting.