An initiative of Brisbane City Council

Artforce Brisbane
An initiative of Brisbane City Council

Rachael Dale

Two Houses, One Thousand Goodnights

Bradfield Hwy & Cairns St, Kangaroo Point QLD
I have worked with the concept of home and identity. Home is much more than the four walls that contain it and my concept of home was surprisingly found in two very far away wooden houses – one in the well known Cairns Street Cottages, Kangaroo Point and the other a simple wooden house in Lismore, Northern NSW. The traffic box is positioned on Cairns Street – the same street my Great Grandparents and Grandparents lived in around 1928. The image painted in the traffic box is my other Grandparents house in Lismore, northern NSW. The traffic box is not just an artwork but a physical marker of where my family lived almost one hundred years ago combined with the visual image of my other Grandparents’ house. I have reconnected two houses, two families, 100 years, one thousand good nights. I hope the viewer asks ‘Whose house is this? Why is it significant?’ I would like the viewer to be provoked to think about their own idea of home and identity.
Box ID: B0836 (View Map Below)
Painted on: June 2021

Family ties

Artforce artist Rachael Dale’s connection to Cairns Street, Kangaroo Point is a deep one – both her grandparents and great grandparents lived in the Cairns Street cottages in 1928, almost 100 years ago! Rachael has tied both sides of her family’s history together in her traffic signal box artwork – it’s located on Cairns Street where one side of her family lived, and features an image of her other grandparents’ house in Lismore, northern New South Wales.

“With this painting I’ve reconnected two houses, two families, 100 years, and one thousand good nights!”

Register your interest 
to paint a traffic signal box

TO BE ELIGIBLE

You must be a resident of Brisbane ie. living within the Brisbane City Council area.
You must not be an employee of Brisbane City Council.
You must not have painted more than two traffic signal boxes in a four year period and not in consecutive years.

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