Two portraits of elderly people looking over Liverpool Road, based on a photos taken in collaboration with Mitch Fong and coordinated as a project for Inner West Council.
This work was based on images taken at the Exodus Foundation following a visit in late 2016. This organisation is dedicated to providing health and food services for disadvantaged, poor and at-risk people in Sydney’s west. Based a block up the street from this wall, they provide meals to hundreds of people daily.
This mural of the heads of two elderly residents of Ashfield is painted onto the side wall of a three storey building in Ashfield’s busy Liverpool Street. An adjoining two storey building partially obscures the view of the mural even though the painting is 50 metres wide and 20 metres high.
The brick wall of the building is painted cream and the portraits which are copied from old black and white photographs are delicately painted in sepia, just like old photos.
On the left is the face of an elderly woman, cropped along the top just above her eye brows and below her chin. She is turned slightly to the left but her eyes look down and to the right. Her grey hair is long and wispy and her facial expression appears to be friendly and slightly quizzical. A protruding vertical chimney on the building runs down the left side of her face and two small rectangular windows are incorporated into the portrait. One is placed on the right corner of her slightly pursed mouth and the other is almost hidden in her hair.
On the right is the face of an elderly man, similarly cropped above the eyebrows. He wears glasses and faces to the front but like the woman he looks down and to the right. He also has a chimney running down the left side of his face but it is painted as part of the mural. Below his right spectacle lens is a six-panel window, one of four built into the wall and which is as large as the lens of his glasses. The man seems to be amused and is smiling gently.
The portraits are painted loosely in soft shades of black, grey and white with occasional touches of light brown. The couple seem to float like clouds above the street, only partly visible at times, and they give the impression of being kind and caring, but not intrusive members of the community below them.
Last Updated: