French artist Edgar Degas said: “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see”.
And Wentworth Falls artist Ruth le Cheminant is hopeful a new project Art4Yes will encourage residents to see the value in voting yes in the same sex marriage postal survey.
Together with her long-term partner Anny Druett they have started www.art4yes.com.au bringing artists and businesses together that support marriage equality.
“We are a couple who have been together for 31 years … we want what other Australians have when they make a commitment … we just want the same rights as everybody else,” Ms le Cheminant, 67, said.
We are a couple who have been together for 31 years ... we just want the same rights as everybody else
The project kicked off on the weekend, with five artists and five businesses signing on within a few hours, including Basilnut in Katooma as well as Il Postino’s cafe and the Falls Food Hall supermarket in Wentworth Falls, they said. By Monday a hairdresser, gallery and restaurant were also keen to sign up.
Basilnut owner Kerry Nutt said it seemed a basic human right.
“It’s just fair,” Mrs Nutt said. “We all believe in equal rights, why not?”
Ms le Cheminant sees the postal survey as a “cynical exercise… 2004 was done without a plebiscite”. But nevertheless she wants to ensure her 60-year-old partner is entitled to their home and other assets when she dies. It was also to ensure they could be with each other in hospital – and recognised as a spouse – if the need arose.
“I can’t guarantee that at the moment,” she added.
Straight and gay artists are invited to be part of the project creating a unique artwork to sell. The buyer of the art, which will be displayed on the wall or window of a business and/or online, will get to keep a piece of history with information on the back about the 2017 postal survey.
Ms Druett, a social marketer and trainer, is also putting videos together for those businesses supporting same sex marriage.
“Businesses will advertise … people will buy the artwork in a shopfront, artists will get paid and people will get an artwork as a reminder,” she said. “On the back it might say ‘this is what we were forced to do … we never wanted a plebiscite’,” she said.
The voluntary survey is now being delivered to homes with results expected in November.
