Walk through Sydney's Central Business District, today, and what you will predominantly hear is traffic. Traffic, chatter and building works. With all this unnatural noise it can be easy to forget that this area was once thriving with wildlife. Angels Place Sydney strives to remind us of just this.
Angels Place Sydney
Tucked away between the busy thoroughfares of George and Pitt Sreet, this charming alleyway is easy to miss. Stumble upon it, however, and you're in for a treat. Sounding above the roar of the city, you will hear the calls of 50 different birds: the voices of species pushed to the city's fringes by the relentless march of human progress.
Birdcages In Sydney?
Follow the calls into Angels Place and you will find a strange sight awaits you, hanging overhead: a mass of empty birdcages in the centre of Sydney. A unique art installation meant to remind us of those creatures that have been displaced by modernity.
Linger long enough and you will find that the calls change. Nocturnal birds sing at night; early-risers in the morning, a nod to the vibrant diversity that nature has to offer.
A Temporary Exhibition Made Permanent
Angels Place's birdcages originally served as part of a larger series of Sydney art installations: Laneways By George: Hidden Networks.
This included:
-A bar in a ravine, just 7 metres above sea-level, with boats and debris piled around and animations of a tumultuous weather system lighting the walls on either side: a foreboding reminder of the consequences of our continued inaction on climate change.
-Fleshy lumps of silicone growing out of worn brick walls, pulsing.
-Fabric sheets draped across an alleyway: a way of causing chance interactions between passing strangers.
The project began in 2010, but has now ended. The rest of the installations have been taken down, but the Angels Place Birdcages remain, Sydney council having made them permanent. Next time you are in CBD, why not break away from its busy thoroughfares and take a moment to reflect beneath the Sydney birdcages?
Interested in finding more places like this? Try one of our Sydney Scavenger Hunts - untangle cryptic clues as a team, as you are taken on a journey to the most unique, unusual and bizarre corners of Sydney.
