ONLY $9.90 DELIVERY INFO

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Mike Hewson

The Key’s Under the Mat

Justin Paton

$40

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Art Gallery of New South Wales
04 October 2025
Taking the form of a colourful and dynamic 'handbook', this multilayered publication reveals the many people, objects and ideas that have come together to create a one-of-a-kind project: Mike Hewson's The Key's Under the Mat.

Renowned for award-winning public projects that are at once artworks, play areas, and places to be, Mike Hewson has reimagined the Art Gallery of New South Wales' underground Nelson Packer Tank space as 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.

Developed in the artist's dynamic Sydney workshop and constructed from thousands of salvaged objects and materials, Hewson's project is an experiment in participation, a spirited act of reclamation and regeneration, a radical rework of the legacies of modern sculpture, and a provocation about what a truly welcoming art museum might look like. For Hewson, whose sculptural practice was catalysed by the experience of the Christchurch earthquakes, the artist is a host who welcomes guests to use the artwork as their own - 'the key's under the mat, make yourself at home'.

The image-rich publication will be a book of intrigue for those interested in art, architecture, play and playgrounds, with essays by the Art Gallery's head curator of international art, Justin Paton, and assistant curator of international contemporary art Emily Sullivan, along with the voices of friends, collaborators and admirers of Hewson's work, including author Megan Dunn and artists Agatha Gothe-Snape and Liam Gillick, among others.

The first major monograph on Hewson's acclaimed practice, the publication includes photography of the artist's sprawling workshop, previous commissions and new sculptures, as well as renders, sketches, notations and playful interventions to extend its reach beyond specialists and across generations.
By:  
Imprint:   Art Gallery of New South Wales
Country of Publication:   Australia
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 190mm, 
ISBN:   9781741741810
ISBN 10:   1741741815
Pages:   168
Publication Date:  
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Justin Paton is head curator of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and lead curator of Mike Hewson: The Key's Under the Mat. His projects for the Art Gallery have included Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? (2023) and the inaugural Nelson Packer Tank commission Adrián Villar Rojas: The End of Imagination (2022). Paton's books include McCahon country (Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki and Penguin Random House New Zealand, Auckland, 2019) and Dreamhome: stories of art and shelter (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2023). Emily Sullivan is assistant curator of contemporary inter-national art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and assistant curator of Mike Hewson: The Key's Under the Mat. At the Art Gallery, she worked as assistant curator on Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? and is currently working with ceramic sculptor Mechelle Bounpraseuth on an artist's project for 2026. Previously, she was a curator for Kaldor Public Art Projects, working on do it (australia) (2020), Making Art Public (2019) and Asad Raza (2019). Ryan Brown is workshop manager and boilermaker with Hewson Industries for the project The Key's Under the Mat. Megan Dunn is a curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi and the celebrated author of Things I learned at art school (2021) and The mermaid chronicles: a midlife mer-moir (2024). Guillermo Fernández-Abascal is a Spanish architect, a practice fellow at the University of Sydney, and founding partner of the office GFA2. Agatha Gothe-Snape is a Sydney-based artist who explores the boundaries between artist, artwork and audience through performance, text, sculpture and works on paper. Liam Gillick is a British artist based in New York and internationally recognised for his work in sculpture, video, architecture and text.

See Also