I had heard the stories about how Sydney's new metro stations were filled with works of art. I recalled the underground passage from the Wynyard heavy rail station to the Barangaroo development as being an audio-visual experience, so I assumed that Barangaroo Metro station was likewise artistically blessed.

I therefore decided to do a quick hop over there during my lunch break.

Memo to self: Do your damned research first.

Let me start by saying that I have not yet seen a metro station that I find to be (a) badly designed or (b) unesthetic. That includes Barangaroo. I consider the stonework here to be beautiful and reminiscent of the sandstone that can be found all through this part of Sydney. The platforms are wide and spacious, the environment clean and shiny and new.

But in terms of art... in my view the station is barren. You see that thing stuck on the wall to the right? That's it. There is a handful of them on the walls, plus some inscriptions on some columns, though I didn't see those. Apparently these are supposed to represent trees. I doubt that I would have even noticed any of them had I not been explicitly looking for artwork. But I was, so I saw them, and was mightily underwhelmed.

I was even less whelmed when I read the artist's description of what they supposedly represent. I'm not going to bother repeating it here.

I believe that the next station along, Martin Place, is where the treasure trove of art on the line is to be found.

What's worse, Barangaroo Metro is in the middle of nowhere. There is a large, undeveloped block of land around it. It's about half a km to the nearest major building, the Crown Sydney tower. None of it is undercover. On a warm but not too hot sunny day, that would probably be a pleasant stroll alongside the harbour. However we had just had a southerly change come through the previous afternoon so it was grey, windy and spitting with light rain, so I did not come away with a particularly positive impression of the place.