By Tracy Sorensen
Photo by Jorge Gonzalez

SYDNEY -- “The Blue House” is an artistic installation representing a domestic interior, complete with “real” doors, walls and windows. This almost-life size piece, to be launched at Neeta City shopping centre in Fairfield on March 8, is “furnished” with tables, chairs, curtains and family photographs.

Large soft-sculpture human forms -- all in blue -- complete the scene. Shoppers will be able to walk right into the house to have a closer look at the intricately designed patchwork quilt in the baby's cot or the images flickering endlessly across the television screen in the “living room”.

On closer examination, the real message of the piece is revealed: this is a display drawing attention to the issue of domestic violence. The child's teddy bear wears a bandage; leaflets are sitting in the letterbox in a range of languages, waiting to be picked up; the television is showing videos explaining where to get help if you have been abused.

The installation will be on display at Neeta City March 7-12. It is expected to travel to other centres in the Fairfield local government area and beyond.

Community artist Nola Taylor worked with participants from the Indo-China Chinese Association, the Korean Women's Association and the Immigrant Women's Health Centre to produce the exhibition. Each group worked separately on a particular aspect of the installation, with Nola sharing information between groups and reporting on the project as a whole.

The aims of the project are to use artistic media to raise public awareness of domestic violence in an accessible setting; to empower women, particularly women of non-English speaking background, from the Fairfield community; and to encourage other community organisations to get involved in joint projects around social issues.

The project was coordinated by Anoop Johar, Domestic Violence worker at Ettinger House (Fairfield Family Resource Centre) with back-up from the Fairfield Community Arts Network. It was funded by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. For more information, contact Anoop on 754 1811.

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