The Australian artist explores Sydney’s forgotten history in his 32nd Kaldor Public Art Project barrangal dyara (skin and bones).

Few realise that Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden was once the site of the Garden Palace – a structure larger than the Queen Victoria Building and topped by the sixth largest dome in the world – that stood above the harbour for three years before it burned to the ground. The Palace, a prominent symbol of nation-building, had been used to house a large number of Aboriginal objects collected along the colonial frontier, almost all of which were lost in the blaze.

Now Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara (skin and bones) – the first Kaldor Public Art Project produced with an Aboriginal Artist – seeks to reawaken lost memories, tracing the footprint of the Garden Palace’s remains with 15,000 bleached white shields. The name comes from the local Sydney language, barrangal meaning skin and darya meaning bones.

^{Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara (skin and bones), photo © Peter Greig}

“Barrangal dyara is a response to the immense loss felt throughout Australia due to the destruction of countless culturally significant Aboriginal objects when the Palace was...