Kevin by Daisy Kate Lewis
We all have an idea of “homelessness” but do we have the full picture?
This is the question posed by an exhibition that sheds light on homelessness as it heads to Footscray this week.
Challenging stereotypes, The Full Picture empowers those experiencing homelessness by allowing them to tell their own stories in a series of audio pieces. The stories are raw, sometimes sad, mostly hopeful and full of wisdom, colour and passion.
A man named Kevin predicts the result of the AFL grand final. Bill talks you through one of his prized possessions: his shirt collection.
An artist’s depiction of the person speaking sits above a milk crate, which holds the headset you use to listen to their story.
Daisy Kate Lewis, one of the artists involved with the project, said she was given a photo and audio recording of one of the homeless people and asked to paint a portrait in response.
“I thought the concept was an engaging and accessible way to discuss homelessness with a broad audience. In particular I was moved by the idea of focusing on the humanity of the individual rather than the detached ‘faceless homeless person’ generalisation often adopted when discussing the global problem of homelessness,” she said.
Lewis said the the curator of the project, Caitlin Shannon, sent her the artist brief with some information and she started her portrait straight away, listening to the audio while she worked.
“Kevin was a total character and I wanted my portrait to be fun and reflect his charisma. I liked to think of him as radiating yellow and green so I went ahead and did so.
“Painting a personality is something very different to painting a naturalistic portrait, and I think that’s what the project was all about – personalities. I’m really proud and excited to be part of the brilliant project,” she said.
The exhibition will run at Lentil As Anything in Footscray October 6-11.
The audio and portraits are available online at http://www.fullpicture.org/
