At Arden Station, we're excited to unveil the completion of Abdul Abdullah's large-scale artwork, Come Together.
The stunning artwork, featuring two large-scale aluminium hands, recreates J.S. Calder’s painting ‘View from Royal Park across West Melbourne Swamp’ (1860) on a vibrant mosaic background.
Major construction of this new station in North Melbourne was completed earlier this year, the first of five Metro Tunnel stations to be finished.
Over the past weeks, crews have been installing the large-scale aluminium hands that now reach across the mosaic background in a welcoming gesture. They represent the coming together of people connected to the Arden area – from the First Peoples of the Kulin Nation, subsequent waves of migration, and to the future generations when Arden will be transformed into a new precinct.
‘I grew up next to a train station and I always saw it as a nexus point of different communities coming together,’ says artist Abdul Abdullah.
Abdullah, a seventh-generation Muslim Australian of mixed ethnicity, uses his art to address complex feelings of displacement and alienation associated with histories of diaspora and migration. His work has been exhibited at Australian institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Australian Muslim Artist Art Prize.
The new station, near the corner of Arden and Laurens streets in North Melbourne, will be a sustainable transport hub just a few minutes’ walk from the North Melbourne Recreation Centre, Arden Street Oval and the Route 57 tram.