Artist Tina Fox spent lockdown crocheting her 10-metre installation Distress Signal by unravelling and recycling rope from two of her previous public sculptures. Now framed by the 1940s sandstone American Pavilion, its pixellated message flows along the grass.

“Distress Signal laments the historic bushfires of Australia, increasing awareness of climate change, ongoing inequity for gender and Indigenous rights and the current COVID pandemic,” she says.

Jayanto Tan’s sculptural installation And Then, Pai Ti Kong (A praying The Heaven God), which spills between snaking tree roots like a rainbow river, features 5798 ceramic fortune cookies.

Partly created in community workshops in Granville, the work is a homage to the victims of the riots of May 1998 in Indonesia, where an estimated 1000 people died during targeted attacks on the country’s ethnic Chinese community.

“This installation symbolises life and hope, albeit the tragedy remains unresolved politically,” Tan says.

Other works include Leisa Sage’s cyanotype print tribute to her nan Your embrace is my fondest memory, Stevie Fieldsend’s STILL …, featuring burnt wooden power poles rescued near Lake Conjola after the 2019-20 bushfires, and Szymon Dorabialski’s copper and pine bell tower, The Bell Tolls for Three, which visitors can ring.

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Whimbrel Wilson’s woodwork Hearth, inspired by the chimney standing in the remains of her grandparents’ house in Kiah, near Eden, after the 2019/20 bushfires, is a deliberately ephemeral piece.

“It’s half the scale of the original chimney and made out of a combustible material so she’s planning to take it back near the site where her grandparents’ house was and film a video of it burning,” Dr Fries says.

Open between sunrise and sunset, with free entry, Hidden includes curator tours and dance, film and family picnic day events.

Among 11 awards with prizes ranging from $200 to $10,000, an award commemorating artist Nerine Martini, known for her community-inspired projects, is included this year.

Hidden runs to October 9.

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