Arthur Wicks Baylis Installation

Through a $4000 Wagga Wagga City Council 19/20 annual grant, renowned Wagga artist Arthur Wicks has given new life – and meaning – to an empty shop front along Baylis Street.

Mr Wicks’ eye-catching and moveable window installation, titled The Real Estate Project wraps around the front of 76 Baylis Street, displaying a collage of real estate photographs going back 40 years.

The images are not of the premises itself but of signs advertising a cross section of real estate agents and their contact details.

“These photographs, captured by Mr Wicks during the 1970s, showcase a practice many Australians may have forgotten or, perhaps, never realised existed,” Director Community Janice Summerhayes said.

“Back in those days, real estate signs were often attached to growing trees… a changed practice for many reasons."

Mr Wicks said he catalogued the images while witnessing the loss of native forest growth to urban development, especially along the New South Wales South Coast.

“For me these trees, with real estate signs attached to them, became poignant omens of things to come,” Mr Wicks declared.

“The trees that once advertised properties for sale, were lost to the homes of the future.”

Mrs Summerhayes said art installations, like The Real Estate Project, could contribute to enhancing the CBD’s visual appeal.

“Installations like this have the potential to activate the Central Business District,” she said.

If you have a creative idea, keep a look out on Council’s website www.wagga.gov.au for the 20/21 Annual Grants Program guidelines that will open for applications on 16 March 2020 closing 15 May 2020.