New Zealand-born engineer-turned-artist Mike Hewson has opened 'The Key’s Under The Mat,' an interactive social sculpture inside the subterranean Nelson Packer Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The free exhibition, running from October 4, 2025 through 2026, transforms a former WWII oil reservoir into an art park featuring dozens of usable sculptures—including a functioning sauna, steam room, laundromat, playground, and barbecue—all made from thousands of salvaged objects. Visitors are encouraged to dwell, play, create, and even do laundry, with the artist describing the work as a 'handmade utopia.'
This exhibition matters because it redefines the relationship between art and audience by turning the gallery into an active, communal space where the artwork only fully exists through public participation. Curator Justin Paton calls it 'like none I’ve encountered,' and director Maud Page describes Hewson as a 'disruptor.' By blending sculpture, architecture, and social practice in a historic underground chamber, the project challenges conventional museum boundaries and invites broad, intergenerational engagement with contemporary art.