1982 Women and Arts Festival mural
Art & Woolloomooloo Official Murals: Green Bans History Murals & Women and Arts Festival Mural
'Women At the Edge of Town', 1982
Australian band Midnight Oil, featured on of the removed murals in their video for Power and Passion (1983.) Artists Merilyn Fairskye and Michiel Dolk painted the History Panels and co-ordinated the project. Two groups of Billboard Panels (removed) are by Robert Eadie, Bob Clutterbuck, Angela Gee, Tim Maguire, Ruth Waller, Toby Zoates, Robin Hecks and Grahame Kime and Vicki Varvaressos. This was initiated, supported and funded by resident donations, assisted by the BLF, FEDFA, Council, NSW Premiers Department and the Australia Council. The Housing Commission donated a large warehouse as a studio and State Rail the pylons.
Women and Arts Festival Mural References: 1982 Women and Arts Festival publication, ‘Women on the Edge of Town Domain Mural Project, 1982. Annette ven den Bosch, ‘What is the situation for women working in the arts? Or how the NSW W&AF served to disguise this', Art Network, Summer 1983.
In the late 1990s, a City Sculpture Walk was initiated by curator Sally Couacaud (for Sydney City Council).This walk includes works also referencing Woolloomooloo history by Robyn Backen, ‘Archaeology of Bathing’; Nigel Heleyer, sound sculpture below Boy Charlton Pool and Debra Phillips. The mural is now in a ruined state but unlike the Redfern History Mural, City Council is resistant to its restoration. Controversy also exists over the approach to conservation taken for the Green Bans Mural. Unlike the Redfern Mural (supervised by Carol Ruff and a team from Eora College under Jason Wing) it was preserved 'in situ' showing the accretions of wear, not restoration to its former glory.
From Mirror Sydney
Mirror Sydney blog by writer and urban geographer Vanessa Berry at Vanessa Berry World
The Women on the Edge of Town mural. On the stage area in front there were daily lunch time performances while the mural was being painted. Photo: Carol Ruff.
Carol describes the wall as “shaped like a piece of cake”, a long wedge extending down from the Domain to Wolloomooloo below. It was designed by Carol with Jan MacKay and Marie McMahon, who were later joined by Hellen Sky and Barbary O’Brien. The end closest to the city was painted by the artist Nora Bindul, who had travelled from the Northern Territory to work on the mural. At the far end Ella Geia, a friend of Carol’s from Palm Island, is painted standing in a kitchen, a Torres Strait Island handkerchief painted with flowers in one hand. The mural also included Judy McGee, the singer, synthesiser and saxophone player from postpunk band Pel Mel, and dancer Sylvia Blanco, who went on to be a leading member of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. Although the mural had a broader scope than those painted within specific suburban communities, it was like all of Carol’s murals populated by real people and their stories.
Art Network magazine cover, featuring the portrait of Ella Geia from the ‘Women at the Edge of Town’ mural.