Scratching the Surface project / Jack Mundey
Sydney, Australia
Having arrived in Sydney in March 2013 to work on his first solo show in Australia, Vhils became acquainted with Jack Mundey, Australian union leader, environmental and social activist, champion for equality who fought alongside Aboriginal people, women, migrants, gay people, and the working class, who became known for leading the green bans struggle to save much of Sydney’s architectural, cultural, and natural heritage from overdevelopment, advocating for open community spaces, affordable housing, and quality of life for all, not the just the few. Vhils came to see him as a positive example of what people can achieve when they organise for the good of their communities.
Jack Mundey was the leader behind the movement that saved The Rocks, a low-rent district in Sydney dating back to the country’s first settlers that was to be replaced with high-density residential and office buildings in the 1970s. Today one of the city’s major tourist areas, this was where Vhils carved his portrait. The composition is craftily split between the walls that flank a stairway connecting two streets, suggesting that Mundey’s ideas should enter people’s minds, just like people can “enter” his mind there.
Portrait of Jack Mundey (1929–2020)
Scratching the Surface project
Bas-relief wall carving
Sydney, Australia
2013