Newtown Art Seat Launch

The Newtown Art Seat, a cylindrical installation about 1.5m in diameter, was launched in the public square where Australia Street meets King Street in Newtown.

Inscribed on the cylinder is a long poem by local poet Lynne Fairy called Postcards From Australia Street 2010-2016, which Lynne performed standing on the cylinder’s circular seat that provides as a poetic resting place for passersby.

Here’s an extract:

Lovers and dreamers / Crooks and schemers / Protesters, writers, acrobats / Ferrets, rabbits, dogs and cats / Dancers, prancers, street romancers / Ratbags, wild and wonderful / Butchers, Bakers, / Even Candlestick makers/ All made their home in Australia Street

Photographs by Lynne’s husband Leigh Howlett also adorn the Art Seat.

To mark this launch, two local poets – Tug Dumbly and Benito Di Fonzo – also jumped up to perform a poem, much to the delight of the small audience.  

All three poets had to raise their voices above the heavy traffic and it would have been good if they’d had a microphone.

The Art Seat will be on display until the end of January 2021.