As the iconic Australian building turns 50, a look at how it became known as ‘The People’s House,’ and what that title means today.
image for illustration: Sydney Opera House by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Al Jazeera writes:
The white sails of the Sydney Opera House in Australia seemed like “an obvious canvas for an important message”, recalled David Burgess, even if scaling the building with a tin of red paint was a “bit hairy”.
It was March 2003, and Burgess along with his friend Will Saunders had been watching the build-up of troops ahead of the Iraq war. So they came up with a plan to write “NO WAR” somewhere that the world would see it.
The opera house seemed like the right place for their protest, since “most people around Sydney have some sort of connection with the building”, Saunders told Al Jazeera in an interview ahead of the iconic building’s 50th anniversary….
Burgess and Saunders’s protest is now documented in an exhibit at the Australian War Memorial but, at the time, they were convicted of “malicious damage” and served weekends in prison for about nine months.
They were also ordered to pay more than $150,000 Australian dollars ($94,828) towards the costs of the workers who had to abseil down the opera house to scrub away their message…..
Burgess still enjoys visiting the opera house ….
“I guess that was our contribution to the design of the Opera House”….
