This large scale commission from renowned Western Sydney artist Catherine O’Donnell was inspired by her childhood home in Liverpool’s Green Valley. O’Donnell faithfully recreates a classic 1960s suburban street scene across 20 metres of Casula Powerhouse’s Upper Turbine Gallery. Building life like representations through her flawless drawings of modernist public housing, O’Donnell highlights the sentimental and utopian roots of an iconic Western Sydney landscape.

These mid-century public housing estates, designed to solve rising population and affordability pressures are now signifiers of lower socio-economic communities across Western Sydney. However, O’Donnell’s drawings allow us to celebrate the overlooked and ordinary with nostalgia and something other than social geography.

This exhibition takes us past the simplistic geometric lines to the emotional impact of the artist’s drawing. Her work provides gentle reminders that the represented forms with an open window, door ajar, and half drawn blinds are homes not houses.

Her close attention to detail invites the viewer to also pay consideration to the nuances of life within and tell-tale signs of occupancy. As ordinary as these urban landscapes may be they are reminders of domestic narratives that glow with care.

Join us for the launch of three exhibitions Laka, Copper and 2168; Estate of Tomorrow on Saturday, 28 July (2-4pm), which will be followed by a screening of the film, Laka in the Casula Powerhouse Theatre at 4pm

Courtesy of the Artist and MAY SPACE
Catherine O’Donnell, Urban perspective, 2017, charcoal on paper - triptych, charcoal on wall, dimensions variable. Image: Silversalt Photography