By private arrangement with the anonymous artist, this instantly iconic image is now available to grace your home. Keeping things all cosy, like.
The “Checkpoint Barkly” sign can be purchased as an exact reproduction just like the sign pictured, an A3 poster, or a postcard.
All proceeds will be given directly to people targeted by punitive responses to the COVID-19 crisis, particularly residents currently locked down in the Flemington and North Melbourne housing blocks. From the West to the slightly less West, we stand together.
Papers, please: the story behind the ‘Checkpoint Barkly’ sign, interview with the artist by John Bailey for The Age.
Artist’s Statement
Early Saturday morning, I put up a couple of signs on Barkly Street, on the dividing line between Footscray (postcode 3011, stage 2 restrictions, almost normal) and West Footscray (postcode 3012, stage 3 restrictions, almost total lockdown). The signs read “WARNING: CHECKPOINT BARKLY. YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE COVID-FREE SECTOR”, with the warning repeated in other European languages below.
“Checkpoint Barkly” immediately attracted a lot of attention and discussion — not just locally, as I’d expected, but from national and even international media. Some people laughed, some thought it was overstating the problem, some even thought it was official advice and wondered why the warning was translated into French rather than local community languages.
The “Checkpoint Barkly” signs were a tongue-in-cheek riff on a famous sign in the same format at “Checkpoint Charlie”, separating East and West Berlin before German reunification in 1990. This was never just a joke: the Berlin Wall killed people. I thought, I hoped, that by making the idea of a militarised lockdown into a ridicule-worthy catchphrase I could help avert it. I was wrong, or maybe just too late.
That afternoon, 3,000 residents of nine public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne were placed under immediate “hard lockdown” on the basis of a high number of COVID-19 infections among residents. They were made prisoners in their own homes, with no notice or time to get essentials like food or medicine or menstrual supplies, in crowded, unsafe conditions, closely monitored by 500 police. Many residents are refugees from state violence elsewhere; many have experienced police harassment and violence here; all of them deserve better than this.
This isn’t how rich neighbourhoods in Melbourne were treated when they were COVID hotspots just a few weeks ago. The hard lockdown of public housing estates is racist, anti-poor, and unfair. It’s also not going to work. Unless people who are sick can stay home safely and securely, with access to real support they have meaningful input into, infection will continue to spread.
I’ve decided to use my momentary visibility to raise funds for residents currently locked down in the Flemington and North Melbourne housing blocks. Any funds I raise will go directly into their hands to help them with what matters to them. Only mutual aid delivered with mutual respect can keep our communities safe.
In solidarity,
The artist
Sunday 5th July, 2020
Financial transparency
All proceeds will be given directly to funds managed by residents locked down in the Flemington and North Melbourne housing blocks, or people from their immediate communities. As of Friday 10th July, we have been able to hand over $1740 to these funds. Currently, we are directing funds to AMSSA in North Melbourne, who are coordinating donations. If you wish, you can also donate to them directly.
Materials and labour are being donated to make sure as much of the purchase price as possible makes it to affected people’s bank accounts. We are still in the process of finalising materials costs. A full breakdown of expenditure will be made available as soon as possible, and updated regularly.
Update 31st July 2020: breakdown of revenue and expenditure.
Please contact me if you wish to find out more, or if you need to get in contact for any other reason.
Further action
Please sign the open letter to the Victorian Trades Hall Council asking them to take a stand opposing the authoritarian lockdown of the Flemington and North Melbourne estates.
Tower residents are sharing their experiences on Twitter with the #freethe9blocks hashtag. Please follow what they have to say.
Contact Victorian Government representatives demanding the withdrawal of police and free access to the towers for community groups like AMSSA:
Daniel Andrews, Premier
Phone: (03) 9651 5000
Email: [email protected]
Richard Wynne, Minister for Housing
Phone: (03) 9415 8901 or (03) 8683 0964
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Contact your local state MP
A full list can be found here.
If you live in Footscray or West Footscray, your local MP is Katie Hall.
Phone: (03) 9689 4283
Email: [email protected]