Wareemba Boogie Woogie
love thy neighbour
Architect Mark Szczerbicki commissioned Lymesmith to create a mural as a gift to his neighbour Fillipo, in the suburb of Wareemba, Sydney. This three-way collaboration between Lymesmith, Fillipo and Mark (and his family) resulted in the Wareemba Boogie Woogie - a bold contribution to a suburb characterised by early c.20th bungalows.
Aspects of the environment that inspired the mural include the brachyandrus, citrinus and formosus callistemons dotted along the street scape, the remarkable Bar-tailed Godwit, a migratory bird that flies between Australia and New Zealand to Alaska and back each year, to the shores of the Parramatta River, and the urban streetscape saturated with c.20th brick bungalows whose regular pitched roofs zig-zag down the wide streets.
The project started with this lovely email from Mark:
Dear Sonia,
My lovely 80-something year old neighbour has a prominent wall facing a corner junction in our little suburb of Wareemba. His late wife was an artist, and he is open to weird and kooky ideas, so I think he would let me do a mural on it.
and was completed with this one:
Dear Sonia,
The process has been great - we have enjoyed interacting with passers by and friends and neighbours - the whole thing is quite a big deal in our little local community as it doesn't happen that often :) The best feedback we had was from a local man going for a walk - he said 'I've just been walking down the street towards this mural and I've had a big smile across my face - it just makes me feel happy".
Filippo says that at least now Wareemba will be known for something other than being the smallest suburb in Australia (it really actually is!) and that he is sure it has added at least $250K to the price of his house.”
… the Wareemba Boogie Woogie dances to its own beat, with its own unique colours, its tight grid, its own dreams of flight. This mural connects different elements, bringing them together in a choreographed dance for the pure pleasure of those who live and visit there, it celebrates good neighbours and enriches a quiet suburban street corner.
The mural is visible form the corner of Hampden Road and Wareemba Street, Wareemba, in Sydney’s Inner West.
Thank you to my client/collaborator/crack brush-hand Mark Szczerbicki
