Renowned sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Laurens Tan was the creative force behind a giant three wise monkey lantern sitting more than eight meters tall, as part of Chinese New Year celebrations.

The monkeys represent to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, and sit on a pencil with the Sydney inscribed in Mandarin. Tan said the idea for the pencil was from the saying “the pen is mightier than the sword”.

"From the traditional meaning of the three wise monkeys, our vision of the world is limited by what we're told and by what we choose to accept. The monkeys are thrust forward on the pencil, the instrument used to write our future and destiny,” said Tan.

Curator Claudia Chan Shaw was a fan of Tan’s work and even visited his studio in Beijing where he spends many months of the year. 

The Wombarra local was selected as one of five artists to create some magnificent work for the community.

His monkey lantern continues his playful exploration of Chinese linguistics, technology and the culture of fabrication.

It took a team of nine people to construct the cheeky light sculpture out of vinyl and steel, with around 1100 hours of effort.

The structure used 50 LED globes, 200 LED pixel, 60 flood lights, while each monkey was constructed of more than 1600 pattern pieces to achieve their striped effect.

If you miss out on seeing Tan’s colourful sculpture by Sydney Harbour several of his artworks are held in the Wollongong Art Gallery collection.

You could also venture to Las Vegas for another Chinese New Year exhibition showing several commissioned pieces.

His works all have great meaning and often sell for thousands of dollars, but Tan said he is just happy to be a working artist and happy to be paid enough to cover his expenses.

His monkey lantern along with eleven other glowing zodiac animals will remain on display around Sydney in the Lunar Lanterns exhibition until February 14.

For more information visit www.whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au