Terraced – Art & About

By O.K. Glynn

I’m going to tell you about something perhaps slightly unconventional but bare with me on this – terrace houses. They’re pretty much a Sydney icon – my dad lived in a terrace house in Paddington in the 70’s and recounts his ridiculous adventures from attempting to gain entry via the second floor (he failed), to having a very hung-over friend throw a bucket of water over the balcony on to some particularly aggressive Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Terrace houses have a quaint and undeniable charm that just has them all lined up neatly and expectantly calling us home from the bustling city centre – most famous are the ones in Redfern, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, some reaching ages as old as 90!

Artist James Voller did not let these little pockets of beauty go unnoticed – he pulled out his camera and got to work finding the most character-filled terrace houses and has now created an art installation celebrating our whacky little homes.

Voller is a New Zealand born artist now based in Melbourne and has had his work displayed as far and wide as the Museum of London.

He has taken this opportunity to really pull focus on such a quietly iconic part of Sydney, setting up free installations every day from Monday 26th of September through to Sunday 30th of October from 6am to 12am, choosing 10 Barrack St as his main focus. You can also be pleasantly surprised by the little terrace-faces popping up on walls in Wynyard, York and the MLC Centre steps.

It’s an easy and a pleasant way to discover the majesty of Sydney’s winding streets – you’ll discover the city as you search for houses.

This installation from Art & About aims to bring the quiet nurturing aspect of home right into the centre of the CBD, juxtaposing the familiar domesticity with a rigid urban environment.

It highlights this fair city’s ever-evolving identity, as we move toward a larger population and grander technological advances, we find the simple contentedness of home is a steadfast idea that is likely to never change, no matter how far we roam.

Houses on a hill, or a @jamesvoller on the @mlccentre steps? #artandabout #sydneylocal #streetart #terracehouse

A post shared by Steph Walker (@el_stepho) on Sep 24, 2016 at 10:54pm PDT