Abdul Abdullah's humongous artwork Come Together has been unveiled at the Metro Tunnel's new Arden Station.
The Metro Tunnel’s new Arden Station has unveiled Abdul Abdullah’s large-scale artwork Come Together, featuring two striking aluminium hands set against a vibrant mosaic background.
The artwork recreates J.S. Calder’s painting View from Royal Park across West Melbourne Swamp (1860), symbolising the diverse communities connected to the Arden area. The second Metro Tunnel station to meet completion – Parkville Station – also boasts huge murals and cascading natural light, 32 metres underground.
The Metro Tunnel’s Arden Station
- Arden Station has revealed Abdul Abdullah’s Come Together mural
- Arden Station was the first Metro Tunnel station completed, in North Melbourne
- If you want to check it out, it’s located near the corner of Arden and Laurens streets
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Completed earlier this year, Arden Station is the first of five Metro Tunnel stations to finish major construction. Over the past weeks, crews have installed the aluminium hands that stretch across the mosaic, symbolising a welcoming gesture that represents the coming together of people—from the First Peoples of the Kulin Nation to waves of migrants and future generations who will call the Arden precinct home.
Artist Abdul Abdullah, a seventh-generation Muslim Australian of mixed ethnicity, reflects on the significance of the piece: “I grew up next to a train station, and I always saw it as a nexus point of different communities coming together.”
Abdullah’s work often addresses themes of displacement and alienation linked to diaspora and migration histories. His art has been showcased in major Australian institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2019, he received the inaugural Australian Muslim Artist Art Prize.
Located near the corner of Arden and Laurens streets, Arden Station is set to become a sustainable transport hub, just minutes from the North Melbourne Recreation Centre, Arden Street Oval, and the Route 57 tram.
Find out more about the new mural at Arden Station here.
