Sydenham Lounge, commemorating lost community

Sydenham is an inner-Sydney suburb within the City of Marrickville. I stumbled upon the Sydenham Lounge while looking for a Stolen Generations memorial that is also located in the Sydenham Green Park. The 'Lounge' is a group of sculptures of over-sized everyday objects you might find in a suburban home—a giant teapot at the entry to the playground, a big read couch covered with a mosaic throw-rug, and a giant garage door, which after a while you realise is more like a giant fireplace, surrounded by ceramic tiles printed with enlarged newspaper cuttings which give the clues of the history of the place.

What I slowly realised, looking at the garage door and then again at a floor map and plaque near one of the park's entrances, is that this green space was just an ordinary surburban area, until the homes within it were forcibly requisitioned by the Commonwealth Government and demolished in the early 1990s because they were in the flight path for Sydney Airport's third runway.

The story reads much like the plot of 1990s Australian movie The Castle, but without the happy ending. Sydenham in the early 1990s was a small, tight-knit community with a mix of Australian-born and migrant residents. Those born overseas mainly came from Greece, Yugoslavia prior to partition, Turkey and Vietnam (Dictionary of Sydney). This mix of backgrounds is reflects on the mosaic 'rug' lying across the sofa, which has fragments of text in various languages, as well as a pattern of small aircraft, houses, faces and domestic items such as cooking utensils.

Although aircraft noise was an issue, many residents did not want leave their homes. The Sydenham Lounge artworks express a sense of loss people felt at having to leave their homes and community, as well as a sense of anger and injustice. This is expressed through the newpaper articles printed on the the tiles on either side of the 'fireplace', which not only tell the story of the airport development but also the struggle by Sydenham residents to keep their homes. 

The name 'Sydenham Lounge' plays ironically on the idea of an airport lounge, as well as the comfortable room inside a home.

The plaque at the park entrance is surrounded by a colourful mosaic map, showing the streets that made up the area now covered by Sydenhame Green. It reads:

Sydenham Green was established as an urban parkland in 1999. Formerly the residetial heart of Sydenham, the site became available through requisition of aircraft noise affected home. Original the hunting grounds of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation, the area became a farmland after colonisation before residential subdivision in the nineteenth century. This map illustrates the former neighbourhood plan of Sydenham. The design of this parkland was developed in close consultation with residents of the local area as a cultural and recreational landscape, with the aim of bringing new life to Sydenham.  

While Sydenham Lounge was created as a public art project rather than a formal memorial, the sense of loss expressed, despite the playful nature of the artworks, make it feel like a commemorative space.