Inner West Courier 2008
Wilson, Isaac. “Callan Park Inspires Protest Exhibition.” Inner West Courier, 11 March 2008, p. 9. (Type: article) » Download PDFCallan Park Inspires Protest Exhibition
The fight to save Callan Park has taken an artistic turn with a protest exhibition being held in a CBD gallery. The Callan Park Protest Exhibition, which opened at Mori Gallery last week, features the work of 11 artists with connections to the site and Rozelle Hospital – including the work of patients and carers. While most of the works celebrate the site, some were a bit more avant garde, gallery owner Stephen Mori said.
“It should be very interesting, there’s a bit of cheeky stuff.”
Inner West artists Susan Dorothea White and her son Paul Freeman, who is bipolar, were a reflection of that. One of Ms White’s pieces, Paul Levitating in the Rainforest, depicts her son during a manic episode flying through a rainforest.
“It was one day when he was actually high, describing flying through the rainforest,” she said. “He said ‘mum, the wave got to [paint] me naked’, took off his clothes and held the pose for an hour.”
Ms White quickly painted her son and spent the following two years filling in the rainforest around him. Mr Freeman’s work includes small artworks he started making when he was a teenager struggling with his condition.
The Callan Park Protest Exhibition is open until March 29 at 168 Day Street, Sydney.
