Sedimentary Earth Core – Benjamin Muir
Image Credit: Jenni Carter
Audio description
Audio descriptions were produced by Access2Arts.
Artwork information
- Title: Sedimentary Earth Core (2025)
- Artist: Benjamin Muir
- Location: Gadigal Reserve, Summer Hill
Text description
Sedimentary Earth Core, by artist and architect Benjamin Muir, expresses the rock layers of the Sydney Basin with its diverse patinas in a simple monumental form of five towering columns, formed as if from the earth itself, on the land of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples.
Artist quote
“Working on the Greenway is an opportunity to engage more directly with the sometimes-hidden identity of the local landscape within the greater Sydney Basin and to present these ideas to the public in a raw and honest form.”
Signage text
Sedimentary Earth Core 2025, Benjamin Muir
The columns stand as core samples, exposing the rich tapestry of earth underneath our feet.
Mineral layers formed over millions of years - folding, faulting and metamorphosing from the weight of one another. Waterways cut these layers over millennia, moving toward the sea, carrying sediment.
The artwork reconstitutes geological layers, using recycled terracotta clay, quartzite and slate gravel within pigmented cement stabilized sediments imitating the unique geology of the Sydney Basin. Blue-grey slates and shales from the flat lands, glistening blonde and rust from uncovered sandstone of headlands and mountains, smooth terracotta from iron-rich clay deposited by river systems folded together.
Artwork description
Five columns are unevenly spaced over 16 metres, beside the GreenWay path. They are 50 centimeters in diameter, rise approximately 3 metres high, and are flat on top.
The rough, uneven, craggy layers imitate sedimentary strata, each varying from 2 to 8 centimeters deep.
Dark and mid grey slate colours the base layers, rise through terracotta tones and transition to sandstone hues about halfway up the column, each layer a page in earth’s geological history.
The gradations vary in every column. Ribbons of white quartz separate some of the layers and glint in sunlight.
Although each layer has fissures and sometimes small stones or pieces of terracotta embedded in it, the column surface is smoother, reflecting the concept of a drilled core sample.
Surrounding context
The GreenWay path curves very gently through Gadigal Reserve. Established gum trees often meet overhead, forming a leafy arch. Through the trees beyond the installation, the light rail can be glimpsed. General lighting on tall thin black lampposts provides illumination at night.
Moving southwest, the installation Sedimentary Earth Core is set within a mulch border to the right of the path. Column 1 is set 50cm from the path's edge, and Column 2 is set 2 metres on and 1 metre back. A further 2 metres on Columns 3 and 4 are set nearer together and closer to the path.
Within the next 5 metres, the surface of the path changes. A fine metal grate section covers a rocky swale and a cement open drainage culvert. On the right, strong metal posts support chest-high, grey cyclone wire fencing On the left, taller black cyclone wire fence is set 1 metre back from the path, over the culvert.
The final column in the installation is set past the culvert at the edge of the rocky swale.
Sedimentary Earth Core is one of eight artworks that explore themes of, and collaborate with, the natural environment, local rail history and native flora and fauna, curated by GreenWay Public Art Program.
Proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Inner West Council on the Land of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples.
This concludes the audio description of Sedimentary Earth Core, written by Catherine Fitz-Gerald for Access2Arts.