Neighbourhood Watch2009

Mullumbimby-based artist Robyn Sweaney focuses on the homes and gardens within her local area. In Neighbourhood Watch, she documents the postwar Australian home in and around Mullumbimby in northern New South Wales. Her interest is in unassuming fibro and brick-veneer houses, simple wooden facades, picket fences, pitched roofs, aluminium windows and flower beds, all built within the parameters of the suburban block.

In an era of ever bigger houses occupying every bit of space on their block, Sweaney’s modest homes hark back to another era. Although seemingly generic, each house has its own character, reflecting the occupants’ choices of paint colour, window furnishings, and garden design.