Here's an Invitation for You, From the Art Gallery of NSW

Whenever one steps into an art gallery, the same old, unspoken commands echo throughout the gallery: “Do not touch. No running. Stay behind the black line.” Every room repeats them - yet beneath the Art Gallery of NSW, a spiral staircase hints at something different.

As my brothers jump along the stairs, arms poised to take flight, the noise of children screaming and laughing reverberates upwards. By the time we reached the bottom, the corridor unfurled into an entirely different landscape. Children of all ages climbed the salient, looping figure 8 monkey bars and pumped their legs on the swings. New Zealand artist Mike Hewson’s The Key’s Under the Mat invites everyone - children and adults - to come closer.

This sense of discovery becomes even more layered when we consider where the exhibition actually takes place: The Tank, a disused WWII fuel bunker. Multiple past exhibitions had utilised this dark space to its potential, such as the Louise Bourgeois exhibition which played with the idea of night. Though we were deep underground, Mike Hewson had almost exactly emulated a picturesque sunny day inside the cavernous space of The Tank.

Instead of treating the underground chamber as a void, he filled it with playful interventions that shift the viewer’s perception from caution to curiosity. The cold concrete walls became backdrops for splashes of colour, familiar objects, and surreal replicas that echo the everyday but feel slightly out of place - inviting children and adults alike to explore rather than tiptoe.

Light, sound, and scale work together to dissolve the heaviness of the space, turning what was once a shadowy bunker into a welcoming, imaginative world where people linger, laugh, and move freely. In Hewson’s work, the visitors themselves are part of the artwork, here to experience multiple perspectives of The Key’s Under the Mat.

While the installation is a place intended to be enjoyed by everyone, Hewson explores the role of risk. All ‘landmarks’ toy with a sense of risk. The rickety beams of the monkey bars and swings tempt children and adults to test their limits. By introducing gentle hazards into a space shaped by caution, the artwork reveals the importance of risk. The world is a dangerous place, and it is unavoidable, even in places like The Key’s Under the Mat. However, through risky play, the artwork endorses the idea of finding happiness in life while avoiding risk.

A key factor in The Key’s Under the Mat is the use of recycled materials. Throughout our play, I noticed how all the structures in Hewson’s work, big or small, were objects found in everyday life.

A road plate sits in the centre of the playground, serving as a barbeque cooking area. Buckets and green electrical boxes serve as fixed and sturdy seats. A milk vat stands, inside holding a steam room. Hewson brings these seemingly random objects together into one, offering them a second life under completely new purposes. In a way, his use of found object art encourages awareness of the issues raised by climate change. Likewise, prior to its introduction to the Art Gallery of NSW, The Tank was another forgotten space of the past. The Key’s Under the Mat takes this space, re-using and re-purposing it.

With this recycled space, Hewson transforms it into a place to be enjoyed by everyone, no matter their age or culture. The title of his artwork itself further reinforces the idea of embracing and weaving other people and their differences in situations otherwise almost impossible. Certain features of the work support this intention. Pram parking encourages families with small children to visit, the monkey bars beckon children of all ages, and the grill brings families, friends, and seniors together to enjoy The Key’s Under the Mat with barbeque.

In a world where art often demands reverence from a distance, Mike Hewson’s The Key’s Under the Mat radically reimagines not only gallery experience but the very notion of what art can be. The Key’s Under the Mat is an invitation rather than a directive gesture, a playground rather than a pedestal. Hewson’s work doesn’t just recycle materials; it recycles meaning, turning forgotten objects and spaces into memories of connection, risk, and sanguinity.

By climbing down the white spiral staircase, Hewson hasn’t just reimagined a space - he’s quietly rewritten what it means to belong in art at all.