People travelling past the National Arboretum Canberra will soon pass under delicate, flying birds as part of a new art installation above the Tuggeranong Parkway.
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The two artworks designed by Japanese sculptor Kozo Nishino will be installed at the arboretum in November, wrapping up the former Percent-for-Art scheme.
The kinetic bird sculptures have been created from stainless steel and titanium alloy and are designed to dance in the wind.
Seven-metre tall Breezing in Canberra resembles a bird in a more traditional sense, while the 12-metre tall In the Stream is a more abstract design.
Each artwork will be suspended in the air by a bright, tapered stand.
Nishino, speaking through a translator, hoped people would feel happy watching the two sculptures, which juxtapose hard materials with delicate movements.
"These artworks are very fragile but also dynamic...so you can feel both aspects of the art," he said.
"I think it really fits the environment.
"Sometimes people misrecognise [Breezing in Canberra] as a dragonfly. The other one (In the Stream) is more artistic in a way. It's supposed to move more dynamically and freely in the sky."
Minister for the Arts Joy Burch said the two sculptures were originally slated for the Majura Parkway before the major road project was cemented.
"Rather than install them there and actually clutter them, not give them the pride of place they deserve, we sought another location and decided that the arboretum was perfect for them," she said.
"As you're coming through you'll see both. They were always meant to be seen together; one reflects and complements the other."
Ms Burch said the two sculptures were the last of the artworks commissioned under the former Percent-for-Art scheme.
The scheme, championed by former chief minister Jon Stanhope, committed 1 per cent of the capital works program each financial year to public art projects and ran for two years before it was scrapped in 2009.
Each year, 5 per cent of the now-defunct scheme was set aside to cover the repairs and maintenance of the artworks throughout their lifetime, costing a total of $364,000.
Ms Burch said Nishino's brief was to create art that reflected the Australian environment.
The artist has a number of similar sculptures on public display across the world including in Tokyo, China, Korea and at the World Trade Centre site in New York.
A model of Breezing in Canberra will be on display at the arboretum's Village Centre until the ACT artworks are installed.
"This is truly magnificent, the way it moves," Ms Burch said of the sculpture.
"It's really like a bird's wing and it will capture the wind, but if the winds really strong I've been told it almost bunkers down into a head wind so it stabilises itself.
"[The sculptures] also have direct significance to the National Arboretum Canberra, complementing the arboretum's six forests of trees native to Japan and enhancing the links between our two nations."
