Developed over two years of collaboration between artists and community, Women of Fairfield is a twilight walking tour that presents four artworks putting women front and centre, placing them within the Fairfield CBD alongside locally famous shops and restaurants serving Lebanese, Iraqi, Iranian, Persian, Lao and Thai cuisine and groceries.
Starting at the park beside Fairfield train station, punters can traverse a circuit of art, food and shops at their own leisure, stopping to appreciate the following four works over the course of the evening:
Supreme Ultimate – a collaboration between martial arts champion, stunt-person and actor Maria Tran, female martial arts practitioners from the suburb, and queer performance collective Hissy Fit. This work will transform the Downey Lane rooftop carpark with choreography, martial arts and film, culminating in a ‘mass action’ involving light sabres, in which the audience can get involved.
In The Round – a collaboration between interdisciplinary performance and installation artist Zoe Scoglio, and women from the local Khmer, Aboriginal and Iraqi communities, this work will see the women feminise the traditionally masculine pastime of cruising the streets in pimped up cars, blaring music. Instead, the cars will be decorated by the women and will broadcast a sound collage of voice and song as they do laps around the CBD.
Pero no cambia mi amor – artist Claudia Nicholson has worked with women from the local South American and Spanish-speaking community to transform Fairfield Chase food court with video portraits made with local young women, performances by dancers and a Spanish-speaking choir, and one of her colourful trademark ‘alfombra de aserrín’ (traditional South American sawdust carpet), which will be created painstakingly over several long days – right next to the women-run eatery South American Flavours.
All Wedding Wishes – video and performance artist (and one third of Brown Council) Kate Blackmore created this two-channel documentary installation taking viewers inside the culture of Assyrian weddings, via one bride’s big day. A Harris Street parade of Assyrian wedding musicians and dancers will get you in the mood – and literally get you to the venue on time.
Meet at the Crescent Parklet next to Fairfield train station from 6pm to collect your map of the circuit, so you can take the tour at your own pace.
Women of Fairfield is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s C3West series of annual live art events created by partnerships between business, artists and community. Co-curated by MCA’s Anne Loxley and Karen Therese, the artistic director of the Fairfield-based Powerhouse Youth Theatre company, the mini-festival was created in collaboration with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).
All the artists presenting works within Women of Fairfield were chosen after being asked to submit proposals as part of a wider call-out to artists who have experience and/or interest in working with community to create work.
Loxley says of the C3West project, “The model is about believing that artists can make a significant contribution to the world beyond the gallery.”
Read more about the artists and works in Women of Fairfield in our feature interview.