The 'Sunken Cathedral’ sculpture created by artist Bjorn Godwin is currently on display at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.
The scuplture comprises nine tree stumps made out of fibreglass and resin, incorporating a manhole and different coloured bitumen concrete.
Godwin took six months to produce the stumps that make up the Sunken Cathedral.
The title is taken from French Composer Claude Debussy 1910 prelude called La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral), which depicts an old legend from Brittany. To punish the people for their sins, the Cathedral of Ys is engulfed by the sea. Each sunrise the townspeople watch as the sunken cathedral rises from the water and then sinks slowly into the ocean.
"I have a photography studio in Chippendale near Victoria Park and you see the Fig Trees there clinging to bitumen along the road, where trees start and the man hole finishes, sometimes the manholes are covered in bitumen," Godwin says.
"I didn’t want my art to be ugly. I wanted it to be translucent and a bit magical using the natural light to create some transparency and reflection, changing the scene naturally."
The Sunken Cathedral was featured in last year’s Sculpture by the Sea and its next journey is to Canberra then in April it will be on show again as a finalist in the University of Western Sydney Sculpture Prize.
The scuplture will be exhibited until Sunday, March 7.
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