Bronze Sculpture Outside the MCA Australia

British artist Thomas J Price has populated some of the world’s most iconic sites with his distinct bronze sculptures. Among the current public installations this year alone are Grounded in the Stars in New York City’s Times Square and Time Unfolding in Florence’s historic Piazza della Signoria.

 “All these different works came to a head at the same time within the same year,” Price says. Two decades into his career, he’s gaining a new perspective on his art. “2025 has been the year where I have started to actually understand the impact my public realm work has [on people].”

 Now, Sydney hosts another of his landmarks specifically for Circular Quay. Price’s latest sculpture, Ancient Feelings, sits outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) as the inaugural Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission. The large-scale work marks the first of a new annual series designed to bring ambitious public art to one of Sydney’s most visible and culturally significant sites.

Tallawoladah Lawn overlooks Sydney Harbour – Warrane to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation – and offers sweeping views and constant foot traffic. Standing more than three metres tall and cast in glowing golden bronze, Ancient Feelings depicts a fictional woman constructed from a blend of digital scans, everyday observations and sourced images. Price first envisioned this exact location two years earlier. Passing the MCA en route to the 2023 NGV Triennial in Melbourne, where the artist was exhibiting two bronze sculptures All In and Reaching Out, he recalls saying to his gallerist, “My god, wouldn’t that be an amazing place to put a sculpture?”

Around the same time, MCA Director Suzanne Cotter and her team had begun work on a new commissioning series and reached out to Price – whom she describes as the ideal candidate – to submit a proposal for a new artwork.

“For me, it was like all the stars had aligned,” says Cotter, “Timing plays a big role in when you choose to exhibit an artist … it was completely serendipitous.” She says Price was an ideal candidate for the inaugural commission because visitors wouldn’t feel his work was “something they had seen before”.

Price’s commanding sculptures elicit surprise from those who may be expecting depictions of revered historical figures. Instead, he chooses to subvert expectations of power relations by removing the pedestal and casting ordinary people – who wear jeans and carry phones – in bronze.

“Bronze has always been used to represent the people in charge. It registers in our brains as official, powerful and monumental,” he says, “So when I take a fictional character with a mobile in their hand, I mess with our understanding of history and time.”

But Ancient Feelings departs from this familiar form. Unlike his figurative sculptures, which often present Black women and men in distinctly contemporary clothing, this three-metre-tall, 1.5-tonne bust is of a woman’s head only. She retains a timeless appeal, while her braided hair sweeps back to reveal a serene yet commanding face that demands to be viewed from all angles. Without clothing or modern cues, she feels both ancient and utterly present.

Price believes this form creates a deeper psychological resonance. “I love making full figures because you get to play with stance, clothing and positioning, but with Ancient Feelings it’s about creating that sense of something much larger than yourself enveloping you,” he says of the sculpture, which is his first public art sculpture in Australia.

For MCA curator Megan Robson, who worked closely with Price throughout the two-year-long process, the monumental feel of the sculpture drives a broader conversation with audiences about “who we want to see in our public spaces, whose stories we value, and who should be represented.”

Whether art lover, tourist, or local office worker, the sculpture is a presence that’s difficult to ignore. However disparate or varied reactions may be, Price sees it as almost impossible to look at the face and “not feel something.” It’s the beauty of bringing his work into the public domain. “I’ve come to see the multitude of reactions as moments of discussion, of celebration, of argument, of recognition, of realisation.”

Ancient Feelings will remain on display until April 2026. The Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission is the MCA’s annual program presenting large-scale public artworks on Sydney’s harbourfront. Supported by the Balnaves Foundation, the series honours the late arts philanthropist Neil Balnaves and his enduring contribution to Australian art.

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