In The Shadows is an environmental artwork that creates an atmospheric zone through which one passes via the three bridges connecting the Southern Boulevard terminus to the Tennis Centre. The work comprises 21 vertical transparent wands echoing scientific measuring instruments which stand at various heights within Boundary Creek. The wands carry measurements and formulae for chemical elements and compounds and environmental conditions. These features evoke the capture of scientific data used in water quality analysis, which regularly takes place in this remediated creek. At varying intervals, water blurps and aerates randomly, whilst sequenced along the 100 metre length of the art work, atmospheric vaporous fog moves, rises and dissipates, transforming and cooling the creek environment.

The edges of the creek are lined with bullrushes, and the banks form a casuarina forest either side, framing the work while creating a green, organic space between the very highly constructed environments of the tennis centre and the boulevard. The work aims to reveal the transforming chemistry of water remediation by creating a poetic 'alchemical' zone as a metaphor for the actual transformation of Homebush Bay from its degraded, contaminated industrial past into Sydney Olympic Park, a green and living site for the future.

To download audio and video files on the development of the “In the Shadows” artwork visit the Urban Art Audio Video Gallery .