JCDecaux, global leaders in out-of-home advertising, in partnership with the Department of Transport and Authority Creative in consultation with the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Corporation commissioned First Peoples artist Lisa Waup to create a bespoke piece of art to sit alongside a Digital Large Format billboard.

Titled ‘pathed between’ First Nations artist Lisa Waup’s concept tells the story of the people’s connections through interconnecting paths, centred around direction, flow and perspective and central to the significance of the Westgate Freeway as a connector for the community.

Authority Creative invited Tilt to help translate the artist’s concept into a large-scale installation. Tilt were challenged to find the most appropriate combination of materials and manufacturing processes to deliver the best artistic outcome supporting the artwork narrative and cultural meaning.

The development of a site-specific artist brief to ensure concepts developed were well positioned to be successfully translated without artistic compromise was a key first step for this project. Tilt worked closely with the project team to understand the limitations of the site and develop a technical brief to support the artist’s concept development process. As a result of this brief, optimisation of the original artwork was limited, and where required was completed in close coordination with the artist.

The freeway and surrounding roads represent interwoven pathways on which we travel to work, for leisure, to see our families, colleagues and friends. Each day the freeway carries thousands of people. These roads, these pathways take us where we need to go. They are places of guidance, movement and travel through which we connect.

The lines in this artwork represent these ideas. The circular lines represent family and community, the diagonal and intersecting points represent our pathways. Some paths are simple, some are more abstract. The artwork represents both the literal roads on which we are driving but also the idea of personal experience and journey.

We are not that different from each other — perhaps brought up in different ways or different cultures but at the end of the day— we’re all connected.