Veteran artist John Petrie was in high school when he first saw vision of the earth from afar during a televised moon mission.
It was from that he drew inspiration for an artwork that decades later took out the top prize at Sydney's annual Sculpture by the Sea open-air exhibition.
The winner of the $100,000 Aqualand Sculpture Award was announced on Friday as Petrie's rock sculpture 23.5 degrees, a figure that represents the angle of the earth's tilt.
"This is kind of a metaphor for the earth," Petrie said.
"When they first went to the moon, I was in high school and we saw the earth from the moon.
"The earth is fine art: it's a complete, organic unit spinning around the sun."
The rocks were carved before being connected together with stainless steel rods, a mixture of smooth and glossy inner surfaces giving way to rougher, more natural exteriors.
"The whole world is in the sculpture and if you look into the (inward) patterns, they look like stars," Petrie said.
"If you go around the outside, you can see the Milky Way."
With an increase in prize money from $70,000 to $100,000 for the winner at the event's 25th anniversary, the award is now the world's second-richest sculpture honour.
The exhibition involves 105 sculptures by artists from about 20 countries, with Petrie one of six artists in the 2023 edition who also contributed to the first Sculpture by the Sea in 1997.
Premier Chris Minns urged people to attend the exhibition more than once as the event at Sydney's best-known beach entered the milestone year.
"(The sculptures) will look very different at dawn on a Friday morning compared to Sunday afternoon as the sun comes in and the drizzle just peaks over the horizon," he said.
"It's that interaction with nature that gives sculpture its uniqueness in artistic expression and to have it right here at the entry point to Sydney is a very, very special thing."
Founder and artistic director David Handley said the event was born out of a desire to make the world a better place after the Cold War, demonstrating the power of creative pursuits during troubled times.
"Art can never defeat war," he told AAP.
"But art can remind us of what being human is all about."
The exhibition will be on display from October 20 until November 6.
