CATHERINE O’DONNELL ‘Fibro Majestic’ at Campbelltown Arts Centre

July 5, 2023

Catherine O’Donnell’s survey show ‘Fibro Majestic’ will be exhibited at Campbelltown Arts Centre from 8.07. – 13.08.23. The exhibition presents a wide body of work that considers the historical and social context of social housing in Western Sydney and across Australia and explores architecture, social history and the notions of home and memory.    

At the centre of the exhibition is Catherine’s major sculptural installation ‘Fibro Majestic’, 2022, a 75%-to-scale replica of a fibro house originally created for the artist’s survey exhibition ‘Beyond the Shadow’, an Orange Regional Gallery project in partnership with Grafton Regional Gallery, curated by Lucy Stranger in 2022. Accompanying the installation is a selection of sculptural works and drawings, which, more intimate in scale, are evocative of the lives lived within these homes.   

The artist says: ‘The fibro house, the architecture of my childhood, has a rich history extending back to the mid-1900s, with their roots in international social theory. ‘Fibro Majestic’… is an everywhere-everyman example of mid-century developments across Australia. It is synonymous with Australian identity.’  

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Image caption: Catherine O’Donnell, ‘Fibro Majestic’, 2022, mixed media (common construction and household materials), 587 x 587 x 220cm ca.