A new mural has been added to Maribyrnong’s long list of bright and colourful pieces of art, created by local and non-local artists as part of Maribyrnong councils StreetWORKs program.
For this mural titled, ’Navigating through time’, artist Hayden Dewar chose to honour the history of the Maribyrnong River and its ship building legacy.
“I did a little bit of research on the local area and I happened upon finding out that along the Maribyrnong river there was once a shipbuilding industry,” he said.
As a historically working class suburb, Dewar chose to honour this part of Footscray’s heritage in a piece which took him only a week and a half.
“The centre-piece of the mural is a Sextant (a maritime navigation tool) as a reference to the ship-building industry that helped shape the suburb and also a visual metaphors for the idea of navigating through all of the changes that have taken place in Footscray over time. It’s also a metaphor for navigating and finding your way,” he said.
“It symbolises navigating through changes and trying to make the best of everything as you go as things change and you experience different kinds of obstacles or hurdles.“
There is also a reference to the environment, with the portrayal of native flora and fauna found at Newells Paddock wetlands reserve .
“You will see a Red-rumped parrot and a Brown tree frog perched on a river red gum branch, which are both native fauna species which can be found at the wetlands reserve along the Maribyrnong River,“ he said.
“I made sure to include the nature and environment in this work.“
Jennifer Pittorino
