Mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves visits *The Arboretum,* 2026. Fabric, air, sonics, aromatics, LED. Interactive inflatable art installation. 7m diameter. Civic Hall, Ballarat, 2026.

HIDDEN 2026

I thought I’d start big with my first Blog, and what better place to start than the largest artwork I have made to date! The scale is clear from Mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves’ expression of awe as she experiences the transformative aspects of The Arboretum. The work was part of HIDDEN 2026, a micro festival of large-scale immersive inflatable art that took over Ballarat Civic Hall’s dressing rooms, backstage, foyer, and main hall. The project was made possible by Creative City Ballarat’s Public Art Sector Development.

Thrilled to have been selected along with five other artists from two hundred-odd applicants. I completed a four-month learning curve that included regular masterclasses, site selection, public art protocol, and concept development under lead mentor Prof. David Cross and industry partner Industrial designer Mikael Abramowitch.

Video credit: Chi-uh Star

The Arboretum is a fabric torus (doughnut) shaped inflatable measuring 7m in diameter, its interior void measures 3m. The torus in sacred geometry is an infinite energy field. This work has its genesis in the memory of a childhood game my older sister and I devised during summer holidays, swimming at Lakes Nillahcootie and Mokoan in Victoria’s north-east. There was always an inflated tractor tyre inner tube left behind by other kids, but best of all was our little rubber dinghy, turned upside down. We’d dive underneath and pop our heads up into the air cavity of the upturned vessel and sing all the rock songs we knew from our transistors. Not necessarily the ones from family road trips in the car. The acoustics were fantastic, and in our own little world we had complete freedom of expression. I was reminded of this memory in the first masterclass for HIDDEN 2026 when David Cross’s work Pump was inflated for our cohort’s interaction.

The Arboretum was situated on the stage, behind the red velvet curtains drawn to create a moody, darkened space; luckily, my calculations when designing the form were correct, as colossal as it was!

The work is inflated and lit with LEDs from within to illuminate and glow through the white foliage patterns of flowering gum. Viewers entered the space via the backstage entrance where they were met with an avenue of native trees in pots, mist, intricate external lighting effects and a diffused attar (perfume) of petrichor. The Arboretum is lifted by two people on one side, by hand, to allow people to enter the space; it is then lowered for a period of two minutes as the lighting and sound effects rise and fall. The inner space can accommodate up to five people at a time.

Video credit: Vara Bennett

The accompanying sonics, masterminded by Creative Producer Justin Weyers, consisted of bird, frog, cricket and water recordings I made at Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary in Happy Valley, Victoria, overlaid on the rising and falling of a dense, intense drone. The resulting dramaturgy was a magnificent ode to the healing properties and mysteries of nature.

‍ ‍What an amazing team of people I have been so privileged to work with; this has certainly been a career highlight. I am still absolutely buzzing from this project. I was fortunate in that I was able to personally operate the installation during some shifts (see video above), seeing at close hand so many people- all people- young, old, babies, guide dogs- experience a sense of joy and wonder.

You never know, The Arboretum could be coming to a space near you…

More to come as I discuss the correlations and interconnections between my painting practice and The Arboretum.

The Arboretum

Meaghan Shelton