Leaning against a red frame, cigarette in hand, a divisive sculpture captured Sydney’s attention over a whirlwind 18 months.<\/p>\n
Joy, the world’s first statue of a sex worker, was erected in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst in 1995.<\/p>\n
It was the same year New South Wales became the first jurisdiction to largely decriminalise sex work after years of activism from the industry.<\/p>\n
Artist Loui May (n\u00e9e Fraser) drew inspiration from the “ladies in the doorway” she would see on her way to art school as a teenager.<\/p>\n
Joy in the 1990s. \/ And the new statue in 2025. (Supplied: Loui Fraser)<\/p>\n
She said the artwork, which she made out of cement and marble dust when she was in her 40s, paid tribute to sex workers in the area.<\/p>\n
“As soon as I saw the [vacant] plinth, that vision of those women came to me,” May told ABC News.<\/p>\n
“As an artist that’s interested in public sculpture, I felt it was really important to do something that represented modern life.<\/p>\n
“I thought that these women were very important to the area historically and I just felt they needed to be recognised.”<\/p>\n
Loui May told the ABC she wanted Joy to represent “modern life”. (ABC News: Elloise Farrow-Smith)<\/p>\n
Joy’s name had a double meaning, May said \u2014 it related to how “joyous” the women were and the services they provided.<\/p>\n
But not everyone was a fan and the temporary artwork was removed in 1997 before being given to Macquarie University, where it has remained since.<\/p>\n
Three decades on a bronze replica has been unveiled on the same plinth after the community rallied for Joy to come home.<\/p>\n
Tourist destination and ‘target practice’<\/p>\n
May said there was “mixed reaction” to the original Joy and, according to the City of Sydney, it was considered “contentious” under the former South Sydney Council.<\/p>\n
Some residents, including at a nearby retirement home, opposed the statue and petitioned for it to be taken down.<\/p>\n
“At the time a journalist asked me, did I think it was appropriate and my reaction was, ‘Do we need any more Captain Cooks or Queen Victorias?’ \u2014 no, we don’t,” May said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The artist and her original sculpture in the late ’90s.\u00a0 (Supplied: Loui May)<\/p>\n
May said an inebriated man went at Joy with a pipe “as target practice” and a mother who thought the statue resembled her daughter attacked it with a hammer.<\/p>\n
“There were quite a few people that were angry about it \u2026 but mostly people just loved her, which was fantastic,” the artist said.<\/p>\n
May said tourists would snap pictures, nearby businesses were relaxed about it being there, and local sex workers “adopted” the sculpture.<\/p>\n
“Public art, I believe, should depict life \u2026 real people in our society,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dozens of people showed up to the bronze statue’s public unveiling on Saturday. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)<\/p>\n
Community’s homecoming push<\/p>\n
After hearing about its impact in the city, founding member of the Australian Prostitutes’ Collective Julie Bates AO spent years pushing for Joy’s return.<\/p>\n
She said Darlinghurst was the “birthplace of the contemporary sex workers’ movement” that formed in the latter part of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
“[Joy is] far more than a statue \u2014 she’s representative of the intrinsic humanity of sex workers and our role in advancing social justice and law reform,” the advocate said.<\/p>\n
Ms Bates and historian Catherine Freyne started the campaign to bring Joy home and a public petition garnered nearly 400 signatures in 2023.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Julie Bates AO said Darlinghurst was the birthplace of contemporary sex work advocacy. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n
The City of Sydney said 80 per cent of respondents backed Joy coming back during community consultation.<\/p>\n
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the reinstallation contributed to the council’s work in “rebalancing” public art and “providing more representations of women and other traditionally marginalised groups”.<\/p>\n
The replica will now be a permanent feature on the corner of Yurong and Stanley Streets.<\/p>\n
May said it was a “sculptor’s dream come true” that Joy would live on in a new way.<\/p>\n
“She’s timeless \u2014 sex workers have been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be here,” she said.<\/p>\n
“They’re just part of our society.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
May said she was inspired by the sex workers she used to see in the area. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n
One statue’s second life<\/p>\n
Macquarie University declined to return the original statue but happily loaned it so a replica could be made.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said it was “pleased to support the City of Sydney’s initiative” and worked “closely with the artist, conservators and foundry to help facilitate the delicate process”.<\/p>\n
Matthew Crawford, a casting technician who helped oversee the $165,000 reconstruction earlier this year, said all hands were on deck for the process.<\/p>\n
Silicone was layered over the borrowed piece to create a mould, before a wax copy was made and personally approved by May.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matthew Crawford says the process took months to complete. (Supplied: Matthew Crawford)<\/p>\n
A ceramic shell was then placed around it before everything was heated to melt away the wax, leaving a gap for silicon bronze to be slowly poured into.<\/p>\n
Whether the 2025 version would include a cigarette was discussed, but ultimately rejected due to modern attitudes around smoking.<\/p>\n
Mr Crawford said the original material was more vulnerable but the new statue promised longevity.<\/p>\n
“Bronze is extremely durable, so it’ll outlive us all,” he said.<\/p>\n
The replica was unveiled on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaning against a red frame, cigarette in hand, a divisive sculpture captured Sydney’s attention over a whirlwind 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,87215,501,156,87217,87213,87214,87216,111,139,69,87218],"class_list":{"0":"post-125265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-city-of-sydney","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-joy-sex-worker-statue","16":"tag-loui-fraser","17":"tag-loui-may","18":"tag-macquarie-university","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-sex-worker-statue-sydney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}