Boring and monotonous is the future of public space in Australia if we continue to “regurgitate” global trends, New York-based Mike Hewson has warned.

The international artist, who hails originally from New Zealand, was in Australia to give the keynote address at the Landscape Australia Conference on Saturday. He said artists were in the habit of replicating the latest fads from around the world and the result was like living in a bland architectural drawing.

“We look at the same Instagram accounts and the same architecture magazines – there’s a real risk of everything becoming the same,” Mr Hewson said.

Hewson has experimented in his own public art displays across the globe. In Russia he blended a digital print onto the stairs of Pushkinsky Cinema, while in Christchurch he covered a skybridge with a large-scale image of the sky behind it.

His most recent artwork, which is comprised of sandstone blocks and palm trees that make up public seating and a playground in the Crown Street mall in Wollongong, has been divisive within the local community.

Some have described it as the “shame of Wollongong” and a “crime against nature” while others have embraced it.

“It’s an out-there idea that’s actually really functional”, he says of the project, which he describes as “physically bringing the landscape into the mall”. Mr Hewson applauded Wollongong for their progressiveness in commissioning the project.

The council had tried to stop antisocial behaviour by pulling out the original structures, he said, but the subsequent granite pavers and regular seating arrangement had been too effective at discouraging people from congregating.

“There wasn’t much keeping people there”, he said.

The palms have been most controversial part, he said. “People still come up to me and say – ‘When are you going to plant that thing’. It’s planted!”

“I’ll be interested to see how its received in the long run.” .

As density increases, we need to be more creative and innovative with the public spaces in our big cities, Mr Hewson said.

“I want to get more artists working in this realm, we’re often so caught up in our own world – we’re not down to earth enough”.

Artists in Australia also have the opportunity to create thought-provoking large-scale public art in a way those in New York don’t.

“There’s no permanent public artwork on public land in New York … it’s illegal”, Mr Hewson said.

“That’s what got me interested in this project. This is the first permanent work that I’ve done.”