DEEP ENCOUNTERS: PRIDE SQUARE

Deep Encounters is a collaborative project initiated by artist Janette Kerr and including Zoe Ashbrook, Ruth Broadbent, Alison Berrett, Sara Dudman, Ffin(vc Price), Tamsin Grainger, Richard Keating, Melinda Hunt, Janette Kerr, Rachel McDonnell, Amanda Steer, Sally Stenton and Molly Wagner.

The participating artists from around the world will select a small area of land with which they are familiar as the focus for a research project that will include creative activities. The project will initially run throughout 2026 with artists meeting regularly online to share and develop their project.

I have selected a public space in the centre of Newtown (Sydney, Australia) known as Pride Square.

I will use this web page to share my documentation in the form of photography and video, drawings, notes and writing as the DEEP ENCOUNTERS project progresses.

W3W /// added.angle.rotate

Pride Square III, 2026
Daytime drawings made in Pride Square throughout April 2026

Artist statement about the work

A third set of small drawings made while sitting in Pride Square, Newtown – drawn responses to what is ‘sensed’. I have been reading recent research that is expanding our definitions of human senses. It suggests that we are capable of understanding the world through our bodies in ways that are more complex and more automatic than we have previously assumed. Making these drawings with as much focus as I can manage in a dynamic environment deepens sensorial awareness. I sense the mood of people around me, I can feel sound inside my body, I can follow the progress of the wind, I notice subtle changes in the light. The substance of the world passes through me.

Pride Square II, 2026
Drawings made in Pride Square, 4pm Tuesday 3 March 2026

Pride Square II, 2026. Acrylic, ink and graphite on 300gsm watercolour paper, 57 x 81 cm

Artist statement about the work

How we walk says a lot about how we are feeling; the way we swing our arms, the pace at which we travel, whether we are upright or stooped, looking around and taking in our surroundings or lost in thought. I made this series of 12 small drawings on paper while sitting in Pride Square in the centre of Newtown on a warm late-afternoon. I have tried to capture the distinctive presence of passers-by, using mark-making to respond automatically. I have only minutes to finish each work before the walkers vanish from my sight.

Pride Square I, 2026
Drawings made at night and in the studio in Pride Square throughout February and March

Artist statement about the work

Pride Square and the adjoining Pride Centre celebrate the diversity of our LGBTQIA+ community in Newtown (Gadigal). Residents and visitors traverse Pride Square, going to and from the train station, bus stops, and the shops. The Square is frequented by buskers, services providing food for people in need, fund-raisers soliciting donations for charities and people hoping for donations to sustain themselves. There are political protests with crowds carrying banners and shouting into megaphones. Emergency Services vehicles drive through the Square, often with lights and sirens, on their way to King Street. People take a seat to watch the world go by, from early in the morning until late at night, relaxing and talking to others with time to spare. As part of the Deep Encounters project, I made these small works on paper sitting under a tree late at night hoping to capture a small fragment of the happenings and atmosphere of Pride Square.

Pride Square in photographs, midday Thursday 8 January, 32 degrees

And on the same day, walking the perimeter of Pride Square, Newtown