Don't Blink

Sam Brooks

Don’t Blink celebrates the City of Adelaide’s unique heritage and culture. With imagery picked from the archives extensive collection of photographs and drawings, artist Sam Brooks has contrast old and new to create a layered visual journey through time.

The meandering line of Karrawirra Parri in the top right of the artwork speaks to the pre-colonial landscape, drawing parallels through nature, architecture, and time. The now demolished Adelaide Jubilee exhibition building appears top left, fading into the eighteenth-century hand drawn map of Adelaide, its roadways intersecting the building’s outline, overseen by the iconic monument of Colonel William Light.

The result is a painting that references the evolution of Adelaide, narrating the story of the area’s transformation from early settlement to the city we know today.

Delivered in partnership with Guildhouse, South Australia’s peak body for visual art, craft and design, this mural is the final Public Art offering associated with the Reignite Adelaide program which commissioned local artists to brighten and activate main streets and laneways across North Adelaide and the CBD. The project was developed to support local traders and provide employment opportunities for creatives.

See the other work in the series here - Time And Place, Good Job, Arab Steed & Hutt Street Cellars, Power People, Wolf At The Door, Nature Creates The Movement of Colours and a Joyous Soul