Museum of Contemporary Art Collaboration
Creative Activation
Sydney, NSW
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Artist Services
Design & Fabrication Support
Delivery & Installation
Documentation & Videography
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Placemaking & Creative Activations
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Lucy Simpson
Creative Producer: Sarah Weston, WRAP
Videography: Sarah Weston, WRAP
Music: Nardi Simpson
Fabricators:
University of Technology Sydney (Kurrajong Seed Pods made from recycled hops)
Benjamin Baldwin (Timber Shelves and Suspension System)
Elise Cakebread (Custom Cushions)
R L Foote Design (Ceramic Emu Eggs)
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Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
Jackson Bella Room Commission
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Jacquie Manning, Photography of Lucy Simpson and the MCA.
WRAP — Object Photography & Videography
For the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, designer and artist Lucy Simpson (Yuwaalaraay) created a major new commission, supported by WRAP through end-to-end creative production and delivery.
Rooted in story, material, and deep connection to Country, the project extended Simpson’s practice into new multimedia and spatial forms, offering audiences a powerful encounter with living culture.
Our Role
Our role was to support the project across design development, fabrication, installation, and delivery. Working in close collaboration with Simpson and the MCA curatorial team, we translated her vision into technical drawings and material specifications, ensuring every detail carried the integrity of her practice.
Hand-carved wooden shelves mimic a flowing river to form a tactile gathering space of materials formed from Country. Audiences are invited to gently hold and collect porcelain-cast emu eggs, 3D-printed kurrajong seed pods, and glass-cast mussel shells embedded with sand, in coolamons carved by master carver Tom Barker.
The title Holding Ground also ‘recognises the ongoing work and strength of First Peoples – of moving forward, holding ground and giving new voices to the messages and stories of Country’. Developed in consultation and collaboration with culture makers and senior knowledge holders from community, the stories within the commission ‘connect people to place (and) contain universal expressions of life and culture’.
We coordinated with specialist fabricators to resolve complex design and manufacturing processes, and oversaw installation on site to guarantee precision and care.
Beyond the physical work, the process was grounded in cultural protocol and respect. Visiting Simpson’s Country, WRAP Director Sarah Weston listened to the stories and knowledge that shaped the final two videos for the MCA.
Capturing moments within Country and working with the artist to craft a looped ‘slowed time’ video creating intimate perspectives and connections.
In this ‘dynamic, living environment’, the rich iron-red of Country envelops every surface. Large river-stone forms ground the space and provide a place for rest and reflection beneath an undulating canopy of hand-harvested lomandra. An immersive video acts as a portal to Dharriwaa/Narran Lakes; a breeze gently animates eucalyptus leaves and tall grasses on its banks and a cycle of steady rhythmic waves refract the afternoon light, reminiscent of cyclical ecologies that grow increasingly precarious from climate and industrial impact. A layered soundscape offers another description of Country, from birdsongs to songs in language by Nardi Simpson.
The Result
Through this collaboration, the MCA project became more than an artwork — it is a continuation of story and cultural transmission, a living expression of Yuwaalaraay knowledge shared with the broader public.
→ WATCH
Captured on the flood plains of Yuwaalaraay Country, the two large screens amplify the rhythms and the vastness of the landscape through slow motion video. The movement of water filmed at Narran Lakes (claypan country), the subtle direction of wind through the grasses and trees. The audio crafted by Nardi Simpson presents an accompanying soundscape (ngurrambaa - meaning special family lands / spirit place) featuring the sounds of Country, which slowly give way to a composed arrangement with spoken word and language by Composer Nardi Simpson.
→ ARTIST/S
Lucy Simpson
Lucy Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay woman, designer and maker based on Wangal Country in Sydney. Grounded in and guided by the timeless and sophisticated philosophies of First Nations design, Simpson’s Wangal / Sydney based multi-disciplinary practice connects to narratives of country through function, materiality and transfer; through a wide range of applications spanning commercial, conceptual, and community-based projects and collaborations across a wide range of media.
Nardi Simpson
Nardi Simpson is a First Nations, Yuwaalaraay storyteller, composer and singer/song- writer based in Sydney. She is a multi-award-winning novelist for her books Song of the Crocodile (2000) and the belburd (2024) both published by Hatchette Australia. She is a postdoctoral researcher on two ARC-funded projects at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, focussed on Yuwaalaraay music and women’s knowledge around sacred waterways, women’s creation and healing.
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