Standing nonchalantly on a street corner in the inner-Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst is an iconic sculpture with a little-known link to the Byron Shire.
Known as Joy, the artwork is the world’s first public sculpture depicting a sex worker.
Unveiled way back in 1995, the sculpture was controversially removed, less than two years later, owing to vandalism and complaints from conservative folk in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs.
But late last year, nearly three decades after it came into the world, Joy returned to that same street corner – set in a new bronze casting to withstand attacks from prudes and misogynists.
The artwork’s reinstatement, which followed years of campaigning, made headlines across the country.But few picked up on the Byron connection.
Bringing Joy back into the world
The artist responsible for bringing Joy back into the world was long-time Byron resident, Dorothy ‘Loui’ May.
Having gone by the name Loui Fraser for most of her working life, the acclaimed sculptor returned to her birth name when she fulfilled a life-long dream by moving to the Shire 27 years ago.
‘I never set out to be controversial with Joy,’ Ms May told The Echo in an extended interview late last year.
‘I just saw that there was a plinth there and thought “that’s the perfect spot for a sculpture”.
‘I’d walked though those streets as a young student to go through East Sydney Tech… and seen the prostitutes standing in the doorways smoking. But the reaction when she was unveiled… just an onslaught… letters to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Wentworth Courier… she was vandalised a couple of times as well..
‘To this day, people are still complaining. It took 12 months for it to come through City of Sydney Council [the second time] and some of the same people wrote to Council saying that they didn’t want the sculpture there.’
Since moving to Byron in the late 90s, Ms May has enjoyed a more peaceful existence. But she has still contributed to the Shire’s public artistic life through a number of iconic sculptures.
Drawn to Byron
‘I always knew that Byron was my place,’ she says.
‘Every day I wake up and I’m happy that I’m here. The fact that you can drive for two minutes and you’re in these beautiful hills, or standing on a fabulous beach…’
Having lived on Sydney’s conservative North Shore for a big chunk of her adult life, she craved a more progressive culture where difference was celebrated rather than scorned. ‘I just didn’t fit in on the North Shore,’ she says.
‘I just felt, and I still feel, that anyone can feel accepted here in Byron. I know the feeling in town is changing. It’s obviously more commercial than it was. But the beating heart of the town is still there, underneath.’
It was a desire to depict that beating heart which led Ms May to create her first local sculpture, Hug, which features two people locked in a classic Byron embrace.
Unveiled as part of the opening of the rebuilt Byron Community Centre back in 2002, Hug was inspired by a random moment in the centre of town.
‘I’d sort of made my mind up to retire from making public art when I moved here,’ she says. ‘But, not long after I arrived, I thought “I’d really like to do a piece for Byron”.
‘One day I saw two people hugging in the middle of the pedestrian crossing… and I thought “that’s the Byron hug” and that was the inspiration.’
Two other artworks followed.
Founding Echo editor sculpture
One was a sculpture of The Echo’s founding editor Nicholas Shand.
This sculpture was unfortunately repeatedly vandalised while sitting in its home in Stan Robinson park, Mullumbimby, and had to be removed.
The other, East, is located at the Gaia health retreat in Brooklet.
‘That piece represents how I felt as a woman living on the most easterly point in Australia,’ Ms May says of East.
‘The fact that Earth spins towards the east means that Byron leads Australia into the next day, and it just reminded me of a figurehead leading a ship into the new world.’
The sculpture of Nicholas Shand was a more difficult project. ‘That was one of the more challenging ones to do… because he was a real person,’ Ms May says.
‘I only had a few photos to go on. But it was so rewarding to see it unveiled in the park. The idea was that people could go and sit next to Nick and have a conversation.
‘It was such a shame that it was vandalised so badly.’
Why the statue was damaged remains a mystery, but Ms May has long been aware of the capacity of public artworks to stir the passions of those who behold them.
‘I think the role of art, and particularly public art, is to make people think and to question,’ she says.
‘Once you’ve done that piece and it’s out there, you’ve got to let go of it. Whatever people’s reaction is up to them…
‘I’ve never wanted to do shelf sculpture. It’s about communication – just trying to get a message through. That’s why I was particularly happy when I was asked to do the Nicholas Shand statue, because he was all about getting the message out into our community.
‘I would love to see more of that kind of art in our community here in Byron’.
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