paul keating park

Paul Keating Park Play forms part of the greater Bankstown Civic Precinct known as Paul Keating Park.  The masterplan provides a framework to create a civic heart for Bankstown and the entire Canterbury Bankstown community.  PKP Play is intended to be the “heart of the heart,” both unique and readily identifiable to the community and beyond, while also continuing its role as a well-loved place and continually occupied space in the cultural, social and political life of the many constituents and communities that make up the City.

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The project began with a quote from Surrealist artist Tristan Tzara – queried on the subject of his art, he replied simply: “the world and everything in it.”  The creative development of PKP Play, and the community’s subsequent engagement with it, is as much about the world as it is about the work itself.  To address these, we assembled a multi-disciplinary team, each of whom brings to the project a unique approach, a personal agenda, and an interest in the performance of both space and materials. 

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The possibility of PKP Play is as both an instrument and a stage, open ended, and open to interpretation – present and material, while being fundamentally mysterious at the same time.  Inspired by the diversity of the local community, we understand the city as labyrinth, a product greater than its constituent elements, infused with collective mythmaking and based on an underlying fabric that includes everything that has come before.  The intention is for the project to become an intricate network of opportunities for interpretation, constantly evolving in the narratives that the community brings to it.