Gay history tiled on Taylor Square

Oxford St resident and visitors would have noticed the giant, lime-green spider legs that sprung up in Taylor Square for six months earlier this year.

Last month, the sculpture (Dale Miles’ Underworld) was dissembled and replaced with another temporary artwork, Sydney artist Annie Kennedy’s Camp Stonewall.

The striking four-sided tiled wall encircles Taylor Square’s disused toilet block, and gives voice to the coming out stories of the area’s queer community.

Kennedy spent six months liaising with the community in a series of workshops, and a plethora of messages — each hand-written by the people who spoke them — adorn many of the tiles on the sculpture. Recorded interviews also play on a loop, thanks to speakers installed in the structure’s walls.

“I found it so inspiring working with the gay and lesbian community. Everyone was so warm and hospitable and friendly,” Kennedy said.

“I did workshops in several locations, and people were so open-minded and happy to help.”

Kennedy said with 18 months passing since she first submitted her proposal to City of Sydney, creating the artwork had been a challenging process — with heavy tiled walls, audio elements and even a lamp post all to install on site.

“I hand-made more than 2000 tiles. At one point, after I’d decided on the blue colour scheme, I realised 500 of the tiles were actually the wrong colour. So the door around the back of the wall has pink tones in it,” she laughed.

Drawing together local personal histories with a tribute to Australia’s first homosexual group, CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution), the artwork has a strong sense of history, with recollections of 1970s gay life adorning the walls alongside newly-lived coming out stories.

“One of the things that struck me was the importance of family and friends, and how people received you when you came out. From 40 years ago to now, the personal story is still similar even if the politics have changed,” Kennedy said.

“I love that in these tiny doses, the messages still have such an emotional quality. On the one hand, there are beautiful messages like the woman whose dad sent her flowers when she came out. Then on the other hand, there’s a man who writes that his dad left him a note saying ‘Son, you’ve turned down a one-way street, with nothing at the end but the gutter. Turn back now’.”

Kennedy said she hoped featuring such personal stories of gay history in such a public space would challenge the preconceptions of anyone who viewed the artwork.

“If people can go away thinking a little differently, just having their consciousness changed a little bit, it’ll be a really good thin,” she said.