WestConnex toll road story to become display at Sydney art gallery
The mammoth underground toll road project that is WestConnex has been scrutinised in media reports, criticised at protests and examined by a parliamentary inquiry. However it is about to be the topic of a very different kind of production: an art exhibition.
The mammoth underground toll road project that is WestConnex has been scrutinised in media reports, criticised at protests and examined by a parliamentary inquiry. However it is about to be the topic of a very different kind of production: an art exhibition.
A group of activist photographers and writers will show and discuss their work on the controversial roads project at the Dissconnex exhibition at the Gaffa studio in Sydney from February 14.
It will include portrait and landscape photography of the people and places affected, as well as interviews and poetry.
Fayroze Lutta, an artist and urban planner, is organising the exhibition.
She moved to Camperdown a year ago and became interested in how the project had changed neighbourhoods.
“I didn’t really understand what was going on and what impact it was having on people already,” she said.
Some homeowners have had their homes acquired to make way for the 33km motorway, which will stretch between Parramatta and Beverly Hills.
Others say tunnelling has cracked their homes.
“It has shaped people’s lives, because where you live is fundamental,” Ms Lutta said.
“A lot of people haven’t seen the devastation and destruction that it is.”
Ms Lutta lives near a WestConnex dive site, and said she feels ill when she walks past.
One photographer whose work will be shown is Michael Bianchino.
One image shows a couple staring at their Haberfield house prior to its demolition for the motorway.
“That photo seems to touch a lot of people,” Mr Bianchino said.
“It brings out the inequality that the project has and its destructive force.”
The exhibition is timed to coincide with campaigning for the March 28 state election.
Ms Lutta wants voters to “put the Liberals last”, but said she did not favour any other party.
The exhibition will continue until February 25.
For more information go to gaffa.com.au
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