A multimillion-dollar art installation planned for Tasmania’s far south has been scrapped, seven years after work began.
DarkLab said on Friday it would stop work on Transformer, a mirrored pavilion designed for Ida Bay in the Huon Valley.
The project had won approvals from the Huon Valley Council in 2023 and Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service in 2024.
But rising costs, particularly for visitor buildings, made it too expensive to finish.
Transformer was to be a permanent work by American artist Doug Aitken.
Its reflective interior was designed to create a “never-ending kaleidoscope” of light that changed with the seasons.
The price had climbed sharply, from about $5 million in 2020 to $8.7 million by 2023, when plans for a visitor centre, cafe and carpark were approved.
DarkLab chief executive and creative director Leigh Carmichael said the decision was hard to make.
“It is with a heavy heart that we make this announcement today,” he said.
“We have given the project every opportunity to succeed, but after seven years’ work we have made the decision not to proceed.”
Carmichael said much had changed since DarkLab first looked at the project in 2019.
“The long approval process, Covid and rising construction costs have all worked against us this time,” he said.
He thanked the far south community, the local council and the state and federal governments.
Transformer grew out of DarkLab’s Project X, backed by $2 million in state and federal funding to lift tourism in the Huon Valley after the 2019 bushfires.
DarkLab had expected the artwork and visitor centre to draw about 30,000 visitors a year.
“While we still believe a catalyst project is urgently needed to spark further tourism visitation and investment in the Huon Valley, the timing for this project is no longer right,” Carmichael said.
DarkLab will now work with the Office for the Arts to return the federal grant in full.
Carmichael said DarkLab, together with Mona owner David Walsh, would cover the costs already spent.
