Standing underneath a new text-based artwork on the roof of Sydney’s Central Station, a commuter cranes his neck.
He hadn’t noticed the words above him before, and pauses as he gazes upon them.
“Wait, what does it say?” he asks.
The work, which follows the curve of the roof, is in the font used during the 1968 Olympics. It reads: “All Alongside Of Each Other”.
Those who take a rare pause on their commute to look at the sign will see themselves reflected back in the mirrors of the letters, which are shaped by athletic race tracks with a red border.
The work is by the Melbourne-based artist Rose Nolan and forms part of Sydney Metro’s upgrade at Central station, where a new underground concourse was opened on Monday.
The work, Nolan says, is about individuals coming together every day at Australia’s biggest train station: “moving together in parallel lanes with parallel lives”.
Most people Guardian Australia spoke to on Thursday as they strode by beneath the work said they hadn’t yet noticed it, or had only caught a few words in their race to their platform.
“I think it would have taken me a long time to notice it, to be honest,” says one commuter. “It is nice to see them sprucing up the station … I guess it suits a train station in a way, here we are all together.”
But the grammar has become a sore spot for a number of people. Sydney Metro’s announcement of the new work drew the ire of a number of people online.
“The ‘of’ is redundant when using ‘alongside’ in this context,’ one commented. “Lucky it’s too high for me to reach up with my texta and cross out the ‘of’ in a stunning act of pedantry.”
Another wrote: “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s how I would perhaps say it,” one commuter said after quietly mouthing the words “all alongside of each other” a few times. “But I know that’s not grammatically correct.”
But Nolan isn’t fussed by the grammar-related taunts.
“It’s interesting people have locked on to that,” she says.
“I’ve been asked that before, ‘should we remove the “of”?’ and I’ve said, ‘no it’s not an English class, it’s about the rhythm of the words’.
“I think the way people use words and how people speak these days is completely open slather.”
Michael Hill, head of art history at the National Art School, says the turn of phrase would have been intentional.
“She’s not going to walk away and say ‘oopsy did it wrong!’” Hill says.
Part of the point of the work is also that people might not notice it straight away, Nolan says. Hill agrees the power of text-based art in public spaces is that often people will only read the word as fragments or in some instances won’t notice it at all, and then have a moment of recognition.
“It’s there as a little discovery, and if you don’t discover it, no one cares,” he says.
A more in-your-face version of text-based art that has divided some is Tracey Emin’s 20-metre LED sign strung up at St Pancras Station in London that read: “I Want My Time With You”, which casts a pink glow on the platforms below. Emin intended the work to be a message to European visitors to London after the country voted for Brexit.
A number of critics were not fans, with the Telegraph calling it “as garish as ever” and the Independent “lame and unlovely”. But passersby mostly loved it, and imbued their own meaning to the words.
“All Alongside of Each Other” is the first of two of Nolan’s works at the station, with the second to be unveiled later this year. The next part will also resemble an athletic race track, but this time running about 100 metres along the floor of the new concourse.
Soon commuters might have more phrases to catch their eye.
