Susan Dorothea White Bibliography

Park Filled with Faces of Those Failed by the System

Annandale painter, sculptor and printmaker Susan Dorothea White is using pencils and paintbrushes in the fight against the State Government’s closure of Rozelle Hospital.

Her sketches lampooning the State Government’s treatment of the mentally ill were reproduced on postcards urging the public to oppose the hospital’s closure and the draft land-use plan, which would permit Sydney University to increase its campus at Callan Park.

White also assembled sculptural plaques for the April Callan Park protest to highlight the failings of the mental-health system. The Faces in the Park consists of white plates mounted on stakes. Community members could draw a face or write a name on the plates to represent someone who had been failed by the mental-health system.

“This project is to draw attention to the number of people who have suffered neglect and have lost their lives unnecessarily,” White said.

White said the work was intended to move around to different locations, like the cut-outs of hands used to promote reconciliation, and invited members of the community to colour a plate and become involved.