SOS – Save Our Sons
Audio description
Text description
- Title: SOS – Save Our Sons (2023)
- Artist: Kelly Wallwork
- Wall size: 2.3 metres by 14.3 metres
- Location: Addison Road Community Centre, Addison Road, Marrickville
'SOS – Save Our Sons' by Kelly Wallwork has been painted on the wall of the amenities block at Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville, on the edge of the Gumbramorra Swamp area. The block, a single-story building with a tin roof, is a separate structure from the community centre, set back on the block behind the parking spaces. The doors to the public toilets mark three natural divisions in the street artwork, creating four distinct panels. Each panel is greyscale, like old newspaper photographs, with one bright colour added to accentuate key elements.
The first panel on the left shows a picket line of five women demonstrating beside Addison Road. Impressionistic brushstrokes render the subjects in tones of deep black, dove grey, and flashes of white. Though their facial features are somewhat hazy, Wallwork brings a human touch to each figure – here a pair of spectacles and a proud nose, there a wide jaw and pointed chin.
The figures, almost life-size, are dressed in a fashion that was conservative even in the '60s – matching double-breasted jackets, straight skirts, flat-soled loafers. Their short hair has been curled to create modest waves around their heads. Behind them arch dark branches and, in the upper right corner, a tin roof catches the light. Addison Road itself has been painted mustard yellow. The women hold up placards of the same striking shade, drawing our eyes to their slogans: AUS GOVT: REPEAL THE NATIONAL SERVICE ACT – NO CONSCRIPTION OF OUR SONS – SOS SAVE OUR SONS. The protestors look to the right, as if guiding us to the next part of the mural.
In the second and largest panel, the picket line continues. Seven more women assemble along a kerb which has been highlighted musk pink. They also wear their hair curled around their ears or pinned high on their heads. However, here their dresses are more elaborate, with swirling patterns, polka dots and prints. Some women wear shorter sleeves, or heeled shoes with pointed toes. Behind them, a black-and-white banner proclaims: SAVE OUR SONS. At their feet, rosy as a galah’s chest feathers, are three musk-pink handbags. Each woman in this panel is holding up a sign in the same shade of pink, each bearing part of the phrase: NO CONSCRIPTION WITHOUT REFERENDUM. Once again, the protestors are facing to the right, as if looking forward to the next scene.
The third panel, slightly smaller than the second, shows two figures holding a banner in front of a weatherboard building. The background has been rendered in greys and blacks, so that the banner dominates the scene. The white rectangle slants across the painting, the words SAVE OUR SONS printed across it in huge capitals, stark black and emerald green. Framing the image are the women holding the banner aloft. The figure on the left, in the distance, fades into green shadows. The woman on the right, much closer, larger than life, is turned away from us. The same intense green gathers in the shade of her hat and in the folds at the back of her coat.
The final panel brings us face-to-face with the protestors. They are still greyscale, still dressed in neat frocks with high necklines and long skirts. But here, they are animated, passionate. One of them is shouting, her open mouth yawning black. One is smiling, her teeth small and straight. They are holding up placards illuminated in sky-blue, shouting down the decades: MAKE ASIAN FRIENDS, NOT ASIAN FOES – NO CONSCRIPTS WITHOUT REFERENDUM – FIGHT IN VIETNAM? OR YOUR BACKYARD! – "A most blatant piece of horse trading." (A quote from a Senator Turnbull) – BRING AUSTRALIAN TROOPS HOME – CONSCRIPTS TO REPLACE SOUTH VIETNAMESE DESERTERS – SOS: SAVE OUR SONS.
Altogether, the panels illustrate different moments in the history of the Save Our Sons Movement, which began on the Addison Road footpath in 1965. The movement protested against conscription and the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1972. Many members were middle- and working-class women, wives and mothers. As part of SOS, members educated themselves and others about the conflict in Vietnam and the laws associated with conscription and conscientious objection.