The Housing Promise – University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning

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Drawing on his 2015 portrait series, “My Country No Home”, Charlie’s Polaroids depict the housing in the camps of the town of Borroloola and the residents who must endure broken things while waiting for needed repairs and new ones. houses. As Charlie says, “Polaroids are like a family photo album but they show the broken things in people’s homes.” We have to wait for these things to be fixed. Things are broken while we wait for new homes. It’s this story of waiting. You have to wait so long.

Charlie’s photograph is supplemented in the exhibition by historical documents held by the Housing for Health incubator from various archives. Archival documents situate the Charlie project in a longer history of neglect of settler state infrastructure and as the latest in a constant effort by residents of urban camps to demand sustained attention to the provision of housing and to the maintenance of infrastructure.

This exhibition was made possible with the help of Housing for Health Incubator, University of Sydney, Arts NT, Department of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, NT Government – Emerging Artist Grant 2019

Top picture: Borroloola draping team on individual huts, Image courtesy of National Archives of Australia. ANA: E460, 1986/82

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