Callan Park: 61 hectares of rolling parkland on the shores of Sydney Harbour, 2007

With the closure of mental health care in Callan Park, scheduled for early 2008, the state government offered the University of Sydney a 99-year lease of the entire 61-hectare site. As the needs of mental health care, Sydney College of the Arts and public open space were pushed aside in the face of real estate value and development, and with little consultation with the local community, Callan Park once again became the intersection of contention.

Callan Park: 61 hectares of rolling parkland on the shores of Sydney Harbour is an aural record that voices the sidelined stories and concerns of the people who live and work and walk in this place everyday. These voices, heard together, form an abstract mapping of the broader cultural trends within contemporary Australia that influence attitudes towards health, education, and land value and development.

Callan Park: 61 hectares of rolling parkland on the shores of Sydney Harbour was initially installed as a site-specific audio based installation in 5.1 surround sound at the Sydney College of the Arts 2007 Undergraduate Degree Show. Each day of the two week exhibition excerpts from the piece were broadcast across the college’s loudspeaker system physically placing these stories as sound waves into the contentious space it was addressing.

Sound files to be uploaded soon!

For the most recent information on the proposed development of Callan Park please visit the Friends of Callan Park and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

This work was also part of the Callan Park Protest Exhibition at Mori Gallery, Sydney, 2008.