Alison Alder’s screen-print on rice paper, “Get Out Quick”, was a reworking of the eviction letter received on March 19, 2014, placing the viewer in the position of a resident receiving the letter. Tamara Dean’s work “Barney Gardner” documents a man born and raised in Millers Point, in the intimate space of his home. His family were wharf workers and he is now facing eviction from home and community.
Empathy informed Peque’s drawing “Not 4 Sale” which, in an analogy of heart and home, depicted a snail with a Millers Point Terrace as its shell/home. Alison Alder’s “Real Estate” references housing lotto and Nikki Easterbrook’s site specific installation and photographic work “For[ced] Sale” was a playful and serious statement on home and community as commodity.
Co-curator Paddi O’Leary writes: “It was important to highlight what is happening in Millers Point – but also beyond us.” Mini Graff depicts Millers Point as the epicentre of a mass sell-off with a domino effect in “Pipped at the Post – Dominoes”.
The community was galvanised into action and gathered its supporters. Ian Milliss’ artwork “We. Together. Then. – We. Together. Now.” placed the current struggle squarely in a historical context, reminding the viewer that “at the heart of the Green Ban movement was the idea that the city is a commons, a cultural artefact created and owned by all the individuals and communities that have lived in it and not … the property of developers or governments who momentarily grab control of bits of it”.
Reg Mombassa’s work “No Surrender” was symbolic of the enduring struggle against “ruthless wealth and power”. Mombassa states: “Removing a thriving, long-standing community of working people because their real estate is now coveted by the wealthy is plainly the wrong thing to do.” Sally Cushing subtly questions the morality of the sell-off through her abstract painting “Reading Blake (and thinking about James Packer’s Soul)”.
Jo Holder adds: “Millers Point has a history of significant counterpoints between the dissident voice, the resistant voice and the government and the developers.” This history and the heritage aspect of the living Millers Point community was raised by Ruark Lewis’ work “Housing the Seafaring Nation”, in collaboration with Holder. “I Heart ICAC” by Sarah Goffman with the Be Useful Group raised the question of government corruption and dodgy deals behind the sell-off (B.U.G. includes Raquel Ormella, Madeleine Kelly, Sarah Goffman and Bec Dean).
Deborah Kelly’s work “My Sydney Summer” was a photomontage of various protest marches and vigils that the artist had attended around the world, presented in one large banner that visitors interacted with. Kelly states: “I loved how people used it [as a backdrop] to create dynamic and passionate social movement selfies; a solidarity trompe l’oeil at last.”
Paddi O’Leary’s three collages of photographs and flyers amounted to the community’s actions with themes of Community Spirit, Resistance, Protest and Solidarity. Blue Lucine’s preview of “Forced Out” places the viewer alongside the locals throughout the struggle, inviting a “personal look inside the lives of those at the heart of the sale”. Margaret Bishop and John Dunn’s work “Eighteen Months” encompassed photo-documentation and Facebook posts by John, with artwork and intricate handmade banners by Margaret in a collection documenting the embrace of community and ongoing support.
The art in this exhibition was not for and of itself, but rather art for social context, art for community, art as documentation, art for activism, art as activism. Our main concern was that the art was relevant and meaningful to both the community and the broader and ongoing contexts. It was important to keep it real, as it were, and looking back on it, we achieved that.
