What Women Love

Audio description

Text description

• Title: What Women Love (2023)
• Artists: Kelly Wallwork
• Wall size: The artwork size is 5.88 metres high by 5.9 metres long
• Location: 89 Juliett Street, Marrickville

'What Women Love' is located at 89 Juliett Street, Marrickville, once the edge of Gumbramorra swampland. It has been painted on the wall of a double-story brick garage, facing a laneway.

The street artwork mirrors the style of early twentieth century advertisements, illustrated in sepia and grey with a few bold colours added to catch the eye. At the top, alternating lines of serif and sans-serif font declare: Sol Lesser presents ANNETTE KELLERMAN in her mile-a-minute Modern Comedy Drama "What Women Love". Kellerman's name appears in striking black capitals, while the title is printed in shade even softer than sepia, only a bit darker than the beige background.

Beneath this thunderous introduction stands a young woman wearing the kind of early modern swimsuit which could pass as an entire outfit today – a white swimming cap, a sleeveless mini-dress in shining silver, and thick, opaque black tights. Her dark hair is escaping from the cap, curling gently beside her right cheek. She is smiling widely at something out of frame. A huge red-and-white striped beach umbrella fans out behind her. She is raising her left arm to hold up its tasselled rim, tilting it so the umbrella's pole is propped in the sand at her feet.

To the right of the umbrella, a text box contains a note in narrow, elegant handwriting: "Annette Kellerman, born in Marrickville in 1886, became an international swimming champion in the early 1900s and was the first to promote a one-piece swimsuit for women. She starred in many movies. Sadly, all copies of 'What Women Love' (1920) have been lost."

In the bottom left corner, in its own thought-bubble of pale beige, is a template sketch of three women running through the surf. Waves foam around their ankles. Two have short bob haircuts, while one has long, luxurious locks. All are dark-haired and smiling. Each woman is wearing a different one-piece swimsuit. One has a pattern in blue and red. The second bears a design with flashes of red, blue and green over a black and white background. The third has an abstract design with oblongs of blue and yellow over a red background. Wallwork notes that she has referred to the swimsuit fabric prints designed by Kellerman in the fifties for this element.

At the bottom of the street artwork is a quotation: "I want to swim, and I can't swim wearing more stuff than you hang on a clothesline." Above this comment, the movie star's earnest smile seems more like an expression of hope and relief.

Tucked into the lower right corner is a small square sigil containing the words "kell wall work", all lower case.