Catherine O’Donnell, Fibro Façade, Charcoal on paper, tape, 20 running metres, courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch gallery. (Installation view at Tweed Regional Gallery, 2020)
Catherine O’Donnell, Fibro Façade, Charcoal on paper, tape, 20 running metres, courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch gallery. (Installation view at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 2018), 2017-18. Image by Silversalt Photography.

IMAGE:
1. Catherine O’Donnell, Fibro Façade, Charcoal on paper, tape, 20 running metres, courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch gallery. (Installation view at Tweed Regional Gallery, 2020) 
2. Catherine O’Donnell, Fibro Façade, Charcoal on paper, tape, 20 running metres, courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch gallery. (Installation view at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 2018), 2017-18. Image by Silversalt Photography.

FIBRO FAÇADE
Catherine O’Donnell

15 January to 3 April 2022
Gallery 6

 

Often overlooked, the fibro home is found all over Australia, including in Morwell. This type of housing was used for social housing estates, as they were low-cost housing solutions and  for some, holiday homes. Catherine O’Donnell reveals these buildings as an altruistic, beautiful, impractical refuge through her large-scale drawings.  

For the artist, these homes, with their simplicity of form, are not just beautiful but the embodiment of the utopian ideals of European modernism. O’Donnell’s huge drawing offers a fresh way of viewing these oft-derided homes. 

O’Donnell’s draughting skills are very impressive. This drawing goes beyond a static replication of the house but imbues these with a pathos and resonance that remind us these are homes. The screen door is ajar, the curtains pulled back – someone is home.