"MER-CHILD SCULPTURE OVERLOOKING SYDNEY HARBOUR"

At the Sydney Musuem of Contemporary Art, Sangeeta Sandrasegar’s larger-than-life, fibreglass sculpture faces out over the harbour to the ocean beyond. It is a mer-child, combining the body of a child with the head of an ancient fish. A fossil of this 419 million year old fish, Entelognathus primordialis, was recently discovered in China, and is thought to be the earliest common ancestor of jawed vertebrates, including humans.

She created the work in response to the development of this location over time. Sandrasegar describes Circular Quay as ‘a contemporary site of culture and tourism, framed by the cultural and technical innovations of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge’. Yet, as she points out, ‘another smaller and often forgotten time is placed next door at Sydney’s Sailors Home’, which opened its doors in 1865. ‘Here the birth of Sydney sits poised on its mercantile trade, development and discovery.’ For the artist, the sculpture is an agent connecting these two blocks of time in Australia’s history.

As a mythological creature that travels upon the seas, the mer-child bears witness to our sea-faring activities. Sandrasegar describes her work as connected to current debates around ‘boat people’, in particular the plight of vulnerable child asylum seekers, and ‘the many others who have reached Australian shores by boat throughout history.’

Wording from MCA website
http://www.mca.com.au/collection/artist/sandrasegar-sangeeta/