SYDNEY.- Australian contemporary artist and sculptor Chris Fox has unveiled a major site specific installation suspended from the ceiling above a bank of escalators inside Wynyard Station in Sydney’s CBD.

The work, titled Interloop, is a hovering sculpture that loops together two pairs of reconfigured heritage escalators measuring more than 50 metres in length and incorporating 244 wooden escalator treads and 4 escalator combs from the historic Wynyard escalators.

Artist Chris Fox commented: “Connecting yesterday and tomorrow, ‘Interloop’ interrogates the conceptual and material boundaries between art and architecture. It is a physical re-interpretation of the historic wooden-stepped Wynyard escalators initially built in 1931, that re-purposes the hardwood from the heritage treads of now retired escalators, into a sculpture weighing over five tonnes.”

Taking 6 months to design and engineer, the sculpture took 12 weeks to fabricate with over a kilometre of welding, before an intensive 48-hour installation period. Interloop is built from high strength marine grade aluminium and suspended via new steel beams installed into Wynyard Station. The wooden treads from the original escalators have been refastened to the accordion like aluminium surface.

Interloop floats above the heads of commuters as they travel on the escalators linking York Street to the main concourse level of Wynyard Station.

With the re-purposing of the wooden treads the sculpture aims to evoke memories of passengers and modes of travel from the past while conjuring complimentary ideas of journey and travel, start and finish, here and there, as well as past and future.

Chris Fox’s past works have playfully explored the technical and conceptual grammar of architecture and construction by altering sites through installation, object and drawing. Fox has completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Architecture both with Honours, and has recently completed a Master of Fine Arts. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Art Processes and Architecture, and has been the recipient of many awards, grants and residencies. Fox has exhibited in numerous solo, group and collaborative exhibitions in Australia, the USA and Europe, with an established sculptural practice of large scale public and private commissioned artworks.