Art as Playgrounds: Mike Hewson on Infrastructure, Risk & Responsibility

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A conversation with New Zealand artist Mike Hewson, recorded inside his monumental installation The Key's Under the Mat at the Art Gallery of New South Wales – a 2,500 square meter underground park complete with working sauna, laundromat, barbecues, DJ booth, recording studio and playground that's broken every visitor record the gallery has ever seen.

Mike's practice straddles the complex lines between art, infrastructure and public liability. He designs playgrounds that councils don't know how to regulate, builds permanent public sculptures that must survive Australian weather conditions and human interference and he takes on legal exposure that would terrify most artists, all while fighting the perception that making functional, interactive work is somehow "beneath" serious art.

Key insights from this episode:

• The Christchurch earthquake moment: barefoot in a broken city, wondering whether he should keep pursuing art

• Project backlash: dealing with public anger, going into debt on his first major commission and lessons learned

• Strategic pivot: setting a new precedent as an artist-engineer

• True scope of the AGNSW project and how he sourced materials for it

• Hard truth and advice: burnout is not a sustainable business model

Mike Hewson is a New Zealand artist based in Sydney. You can find out more about his work on his website https://mikehewson.co.nz/ and follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikehewson

See his work in person:

The Key's Under the Mat at AGNSW Tank (open until August 2026) https://mikehewson.co.nz/2025/10/the-keys-under-the-mat

Coal Loader Palm Grove is a permanent public installation at Sydney Fish Markets: https://mikehewson.co.nz/2026/1/coal-loader-palm-grove

Rocks on Wheels public art playground in Soutbank, Naarm (Melbourne): https://mikehewson.co.nz/2022/11/rocks-on-wheels

Pockets Park in Pioneers Memorial Park, Leichhardt NSW: https://mikehewson.co.nz/2022/2/pockets-park

St Peters Fences at Simpson Park, St Peters NSW: https://mikehewson.co.nz/2020/9/st-peters-fences

Illawarra Placed Landscape at Crown Street Mall, Wollongong NSW: https://mikehewson.co.nz/2017/11/illawarra-placed-landscape

02:55 Work Life Balance Reality

05:35 Growing Up in Rural NZ

08:02 From Painting to Installations

19:40 Building Playgrounds as Art

27:37 Precarious Look Safe Design

32:32 Sourcing Found Materials

40:33 Maintenance and Record Crowds

45:41 Afterlife and Financial Reality

58:51 Geopets Art Fair Hack

01:07:17 Contracts, Insurance and Codes

01:20:51 Hard Truths And Advice

01:25:51 After The Mammoth Show

Also mentioned in this episode:

Christchurch earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake

JR: https://www.jr-art.net/ | https://www.instagram.com/jr/

Columbia University: https://www.columbia.edu/ | https://www.instagram.com/columbia/ | @columbia

Sarah Sze: https://www.sarahsze.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/sarahszestudio

Lloyd’s: https://www.lloyds.com/australia | https://www.instagram.com/lloydsoflondon/ | @Lloydsinsurance

Infrastructure NSW: https://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/ |

Gumtree: https://www.gumtree.com.au/ | https://www.instagram.com/gumtreeaus | @gumtreeaustralia

Lett Thomas Gallery: https://lett-thomas.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/michaellett | https://www.instagram.com/lettthomasgallery

Rirkrit Tiravanija: https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/rirkrit-tiravanija | https://www.instagram.com/rirkrit_team

Sydney Fish Market: https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/

Images courtesy of the artist and Art Gallery of NSW

The Installation Art Podcast is a show about people who love and work with the contemporary art medium of installation. The host Anastasia Parmson, an artist herself, interviews internationally renowned artists and arts workers about the intricacies and behind-the-scenes stories of creating and showing work that is site-specific, ephemeral, large scale or immersive.

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