Many people walking past the UTS Law building in Quay Street, Ultimo might not understand the significance of the two ‘porthole' windows stuffed with clothing and legal garments and the text etched into the concrete panels around them.
Since its inception in 1977, UTS Law has had a number of temporary homes including the old Anthony Hordern’s Building on the site which is now World Square in central Sydney.
22 years ago - In June 1997- the then NSW Governor, Gordon Samuels officially opened the current Haymarket building.
As part of the building process and in consultation with the then Dean, Professor David Barker, Sydney artist, Richard Goodwin designed a public wall sculpture including the concrete panels with text and the two stainless steel tanks.
An appeal was made for the donation of legal garments and artefacts through the Sydney Morning Herald.
Ten families donated garments including the former Prime Minister’s wife, Margaret Whitlam and her family.
Margaret’s father, Wilfred Robert Dovey KC was a barrister and a NSW Supreme Court Judge. Her brother, William Griffith Dovey was a Family Court Judge.
Their garments went into the mix and all the donations were encased in the two nitrogen-filled glass and stainless steel tanks – one holds wigs of varying age and the other robes, silks and bar jackets.
Their meaning was explained at the time:
The artist frequently uses clothing as a metaphor for the flesh and to reflect history…..The sculpture implies the role of the intellect and emotion in the play of law while evoking the sense of windows on the process of law.
The words across the four concrete panels are taken from Articles 25, 26 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and include the following:
All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.
In fact, UTS was the first Law Faculty in Australia to offer Human Rights as an elective subject.
Soon UTS Law will move again – into the upper floors of the impressive new Building 2 or UTS Central on Broadway.
But the public wall sculpture will stay where it is. Moving concrete slabs and tanks filled with nitrous gas is beyond the scope and the budget of the building project. The sculpture will remain as part of the continuing story of Law at UTS.