Sensitive Receivers: Rejecting WestCONnex
Image: Pip Hinman, ‘Grand Theft WestCONnex’ Rally, NSW Parliament House, 6 April 2017 (White Elephants - John Bartholomew)
As work on the controversial Westconnex project continues so to do the demonstrations against it. This weekend these demonstrations move into the field of arts when a new exhibition by 40 artists and activists alongside a continuous screening of Ivan Hexter’s rousing documentary Tunnel Vision opens its doors.
The show’s title is a play on Westconnex’s own beige jargon – sensitive receivers are those ‘in the zone’ – people, homes and businesses under threat from the gargantuan tollway’s proposed routes across and beneath Sydney, those whose close-knit communities are being wrought asunder, whose health and environmental amenity face years of disruption, dust, noise and vibration.
The exhibition’s organiser, Rozelle-based artist and activist David Watson, has spent the past nine months close to the anti-Westconnex front line and says “The energy is palpable amongst the community, reminiscent of some of Australia’s most legendary social and environmental battles, many of which the work of artists and photographers was pivotal in focusing the public’s mind by cutting through the corporate and government spin.”
This exhibition is a must see for anybody that may be impacted by the Westconnex project.
May 13-14, 11am-5pm. Salon Callan, 44 Callan St, Rozelle. FREE. Info: www.rozelleagainstwestconnex.org
