Shimmer

2025

Public Art

Artist/s: Lynda Draper

Lynda Draper is a significant figure in the Australian creative landscape. A much-loved contemporary artist based on the South Coast of New South Wales on Dharawal Country, Draper is celebrated for her distinctive ceramic works and her lifelong dedication to arts education. In 2019, she received the prestigious Sidney Myer Fund Ceramic Award. From 2016 until 2023, she served as Head of the Ceramics Department at the National Art School, shaping and mentoring the next generation of artists.

Draper’s art practice navigates the space between dreams and reality, creating works that evoke wonder and invite viewers into fantastical, otherworldly realms. With a rare and masterful sensitivity to form, materiality, and tactility, Draper’s approach is deeply intuitive—her creations evolving organically through the process of making.

While best known for her work in ceramics, Draper has recently been expanding her practice to include studio glass. This new direction began during her 2024 artist residency at Canberra Glassworks, where she explored the unique properties and challenges of the material.

Shimmer is the result of this experimentation. A floor-based public artwork, it comprises seventeen custom-coloured, shaped, textured, and illuminated glass puddles. The installation responds directly to its site—each element arranged in person by Draper with the aim of appearing as if gently scattered, as though by magic, across the urban pavement. Despite the planning and craftsmanship involved, the work maintains an effortless sense of balance and spontaneity.

Shimmer offers a moment of quiet magic in the heart of the Campbelltown Central Business District—glowing softly, shifting slightly, and gently illuminating the street it now inhabits.

Commissioned by Campbelltown City Council, 2025. Fabricated by Curio Projects.