kabarsula Mirrored colossus lands on Bondi clifftops ahead of Sculpture by the Sea bandar SLOT INDONESIA

A three-metre mirrored sculpture has been installed on the Bondi clifftops ahead of the opening of Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2026, which runs from 16 October to 2 November and draws more than 500,000 visitors a year.

Both Sides Now is the first major public sculpture by Bondi Beach-based artist and former journalist and TV producer Paul Ewart. The 260kg work is built from nearly 400 hand-fitted, mirror-polished steel plates over a weathered steel base. It was fabricated with Sydney metal engineering firm Metrowelding.

The piece takes the Roman god Janus as a metaphor for polarisation. Its two faces look in opposite directions – one to the Pacific, the other to the coastal walk – while the mirrored surfaces fragment reflections of the sea, sky and passers-by.

“We are living through a global crisis of empathy where online echo chambers have eroded the middle ground,” Ewart said.

He said placing the work in Marks Park, close to the anniversary of the Bondi attack, “feels deeply personal” for a community that has “carried immense shock over the past year”.

Ewart has also been named artist in residence at QT Bondi, where his ceramic sculptures, large-scale canvases and fine-art photography are on show in the ground-floor lobby. Entry is free and the exhibition is open daily until early November.

The sculpture sits opposite the stairs down from Marks Park.