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Citygreen Director, Strategic & Projects Chester Gooden, artist Mike Hewson and Art Gallery of New South Wales director of audiences and development John Richardson with Citygreen’s Stratavault™ system in the Nelson Packer Tank. Photo: Mim Stirling, Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is proud to announce a new partnership with Citygreen, which will support the major exhibition Mike Hewson: The Key’s Under the Mat.Opening on 4 October, the major new commission by acclaimed New Zealand-born artist, Mike Hewson, will transform Australia’s most dramatic exhibition space into a combined park, playground, construction site, and commons — an anarchic and generous sculptural neighbourhood where visitors can meet, dwell, play, make, perform, explore and more.

Under the partnership, Citygreen will contribute, in-kind, its Stratavault™ system, which is a structural soil vault system made using locally recycled materials, designed to support healthy tree growth and essential infrastructure in dense urban areas where there is limited space for traditional landscaping and trees.

Selected by Hewson as a foundational construction material for the project in the Nelson Packer Tank, a monumental underground space originally built as a World War II naval fuel bunker, the exhibition will showcase Stratavault’s flexibility to accommodate underground services and support tremendous loads in new and exciting ways.

Art Gallery of New South Wales director of audiences and development John Richardson said: ‘We are delighted to partner with Citygreen and thank them for their support of Mike Hewson’s ambitious new project, which is an exciting and unique form of social sculpture, constructed from thousands of salvaged objects and materials. The integration of Stratavault into Hewson’s site-specific installation adds function and symbolic resonance to the exhibition’s themes of regeneration and civic imagination.’

Citygreen Director, Strategic & Projects Chester Gooden said: ‘Citygreen is proud to be a major partner of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in this exciting collaboration with artist Mike Hewson, where imagination, ecology and public space converge. For over three decades, we’ve championed circular design by transforming local waste into systems that green our cities and restore natural balance.

‘The Stratavault™ system materials that will be used for this exhibition are not only 100% recycled but they are 100% recyclable and designed to live on beyond this installation – ready to be repurposed in future streetscapes and public places. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to zero waste, creative reuse, and a more regenerative urban future where nothing is wasted, everything has purpose and can be repurposed.’

Mike Hewson: The Key’s Under the Mat  will be presented in the Nelson Packer Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 4 October 2025. Entry is free.