Housing Bubble

Audio description

Text description

Housing Bubble
by Fintan Magee, 2015
52-60 Enmore Road, Newtown

Inner West Council acknowledges the traditional custodians of these lands, the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation.

This tall and thin mural is painted on a large rendered cement wall of the Urban Hotel. It is 6 metres wide by 24 metres high.

From the bottom up, a young man in his 30s is side profile crouching on his hands and knees. His feet are out of frame and his outstretched hands lie flat on the ground. He wears stonewash jeans and a blue and green loose striped hoodie. He has thick reddish brown hair swept back.  His head is tilted up and he is looking forward.

Kneeling on his back is a young woman with auburn shoulder length hair. She wears a rust-coloured long sleeve top, with sleeves which flare slightly at the wrists. She has on a loose fitting long grey skirt with yellow horizontal stripes, which is tucked under her knees as she kneels on the mans back. Closed brown shoes tuck underneath her bottom, and press into the man's lower back.

The woman is looking upward in a distant gaze, and she extends her arms and hands forward at a 90 degree angle. Just above her upturned hands floats a small two-storey federation terrace house. It is about the size of her head. Timber beams fall away under the house as if it has just been ripped up from its plot. The terrace is suspended in the air, held up by string to a cluster of four blue helium balloons.

Above the young woman’s head is a line drawing of an archery arrow flying horizontally to the right. Its sharp tip is just centimetres from one of the balloons.

This artwork was commissioned by Inner West Council through Perfect Match, a program matching artists with community to collaboratively produce site specific street art.

Audio description written by Vision Australia, and voiced by Nas Campanella.