The Joy Set Beforehand
Audio description
Text description
The Joy Set Beforehand
by Sid Tapia, 2019
13 Macauley Street, Leichhardt
Inner West Council acknowledges the traditional custodians of these lands, the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation.
This mural is painted on the side wall of a brick cottage in Leichhardt. The wall measures 20 metres wide and four metres high and is painted a dark charcoal grey all over. An alleyway runs along the side of the house in front of the mural.
From left to right the art work shows the cropped body of a man bending down to draw on the ground. He is cut off at the hip and all we see is his left leg planted on the ground with the knee bent to a right angle. The right leg is extended backwards and disappears on the left edge of the mural. Both hands reach the ground in front of the left foot and the right hand holds a stick of yellow chalk. He wears a dark blue suit, black shoes and grey socks. The jacket cuffs are pulled up exposing his wrist and forearms.
The painting is meticulously life-like from the soft folds in the fabric of his suit, to the stitching and gleams of light on his black leather shoe.
The man is just finishing drawing the outline of a hopscotch on the ground in yellow chalk. It stretches in front of him, along the bottom of the mural. It's made up of a series of linear squares interspersed with two lateral squares and ends in a semi-circular home base. The numbers 1 to 9 are painted in different colours in each square.
A child is balanced on their left foot in the semi-circular home base at the far right end of the mural. They are similarly cropped to mid-thigh and wear turquoise knee-length trousers. They are gathered into a cuff at the knee and pale pink sneakers with double Velcro fastenings. The young child is poised to start playing hopscotch.
This mural captures a lovely spirit of inter-generational help and collaboration in the local community.
This artwork was commissioned by Inner West Council through Perfect Match, a program matching artists with community to collaboratively produce site specific street art.
Audio description written by Vision Australia, and voiced by Nas Campanella.