CANBERRA.- The National Gallery of Australia unveils Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros. Now open to the public, the immersive sculpture based on the ancient image of the snake eating its own tail is set to welcome visitors to the National Gallery for generations to come.

The Governor-General of Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, joined artist Lindy Lee AO, the Minister for the Arts, the Hon Tony Burke MP and the National Gallery to officially unveil Ouroboros in Kamberri/Canberra today. Installed in the National Sculpture Garden at the front of the National Gallery, the four metre high 13 tonne sculpture is Lee’s most complex and ambitious work to date, and a major addition to the national collection.

The ouroboros is an image seen across cultures and millennia, exemplifying a symbol of eternal return, of cycles of birth, death and renewal – common themes seen throughout the Chinese-Australian artist’s 40-year artistic career.

During the day, Ouroboros’ mirrored surface reflects the imagery of the floating world, the transience of passers-by, cars, birds in flight and passing clouds. The large-scale work of art levitates in a 240-square metre pond with a walkway guiding people into the ‘mouth’ of the sculpture. Lee has created a meditative rest place for visitors with seating nestled throughout the surrounding native garden landscape. At night, Ouroboros illuminates, beaming light back to the world through 45,000 perforations in its highly polished steel frame creating an effect of delicacy and transcendence.

Ouroboros joins other immersive public art pieces in the National Sculpture Garden including James Turrell’s Within without skyspace, Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture Foggy wake in a desert: an ecosphere and Fiona Hall’s Fern garden oasis.

The unveiling of Ouroboros signals the beginning of the National Sculpture Garden revitalisation project. In October the National Gallery announced CO-AP Holdings, comprising CO-AP, Studio JEF, TARN and Plus Minus Design, as the winners of the National Sculpture Garden Design competition. The National Gallery and the winning team will work together on developing a design for the National Sculpture Garden that creates a living gallery for the 21st century.

To complement the unveiling of Ouroboros, an exhibition of Lee’s work – Lindy Lee – is now on display at the National Gallery until June 2025. For more than four decades, Meanjin/Brisbane-born Lee has used her art to explore her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism — philosophies that see humanity and nature as inextricably linked. Bringing together sculpture, photography, works on paper and a soaring new installation Charred forest, the exhibition sheds light on Lee’s ever-evolving and ambitious practice. Lee’s creative collaboration with Pallion Group ‘Abundance’ will also be on display.

Lee consulted with Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Jude Barlow to ensure local First Nations knowledge has been respected and incorporated into Ouroboros’ installation on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. They identified connections between Chinese and First Nations cultures including strong links between the symbol of the ouroboros and the Rainbow Serpent, which in many First Nations cultures is considered the creator of the waterways across this country, Lee and Barlow feel the placement of Ouroboros in water celebrates the connection between two cultures.

Lindy Lee AO: ‘I am elated to invite everyone to experience Ouroboros, which I hope becomes a beacon for visitors to the National Gallery. This work is about the cosmos – the open sky that we all belong to – and when you enter Ouroboros, I want you to feel something – a deep connection to something which is much larger than any of us as individuals. I am eternally grateful to every single person who helped me bring what was just an idea in my head, to life.’

Ouroboros was commissioned for the National Gallery’s 40th anniversary in 2022 and took three years to manufacture, with over 200 public art specialists working over 60,000 hours to bring Lee’s vision to life. Fabricated at the Urban Art Projects (UAP) Meanjin/Brisbane foundry from recycled world-class materials sourced entirely from within Australia, Ouroboros is one of Australia's first sustainable works of public art.

Dr Nick Mitzevich, National Gallery Director: ‘The National Gallery is honoured to finally unveil Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros, her most ambitious public sculpture and a significant addition to the national collection. Commissioned in 2022 in celebration of the National Gallery’s 40th anniversary, the work is an exemplar of the ingenuity and creativity that the national collection strives to encapsulate. Enabling leading Australian artists to create works of ambition and elevating Australian art is an important priority for the National Gallery. Lee was asked to be ambitious in her vision for this project and she has exceeded our expectations with Ouroboros. We are excited to present a work that reinvigorates the National Sculpture Garden and that feels emblematic of the times.’

Ouroboros and Lindy Lee are Know My Name projects, the National Gallery initiative celebrating the work of all women artists to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.

Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros opens to the public 25 October 2024. Lindy Lee is a free exhibition on display from 25 October 2024 – 1 June 2024.