Sculptures

Joy

Related to City Art
Installed 2025
DarlinghurstPublic art
A bronze statue of a woman standing with crossed arms inside a rectangular frame, set on a stone plinth outdoors near greenery and buildings.
Close-up of a bronze statue of a woman with short hair, outdoors, with trees, a building, and part of a metal frame visible in the background.
Bronze statue of a woman with crossed arms standing within a rectangular frame on a city street, with trees, buildings, and parked cars in the background.
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A bronze replica of ‘Joy’ pays tribute to the history of sex workers in Sydney.

Artist: Loui Fraser

Artwork description

Joy, in her original form, was one of the world’s first sculptures of a sex worker. The statue, which proved controversial, was located at the corner of Stanley and Yurong streets in East Sydney for 18 months from November 1995 before being relocated to its permanent home at Macquarie University.

The current artwork, a replica in bronze, is a larger-than-life size sculpture of a sex worker, with her arms folded. She is leaning against a doorframe, her legs crossed at the ankle and the strap of her short dress slipping from her left shoulder.

Joy pays tribute to the complex and significant role of sex workers in the shaping of Sydney’s social, economic and legal history with NSW being the first place in the world to decriminalise sex work.

Artist

Loui Fraser (née May) left school at 15 to go to the National Art School in East Sydney, where she studied interior and industrial design. She established her own fashion label 10 years later and won a design award that included a trip to the fashion houses of London and Paris and fashion week in the French capital. While in Paris, Loui visited the Rodin Museum. It proved a revelation, leaving her with a love of sculpture and a belief that this was her craft.

After many years of drawing, sketch groups and printmaking, Loui began sculpting from a live model and went on to exhibit with The Sculptors Society. She formed her own sculptors group and taught sculpture at the Workshop Arts Centre and Lane Cove Arts Centre.

For 40 years, Loui has exhibited in various galleries, with many works held in private collections and public commissions in Sydney and the Northern Rivers, where she now lives. These include:

  • Crawl, Northern Beaches Council, Manly Surf Club
  • Circle of Love Memorial, Rookwood Cemetery
  • The Immigrant, The Consulate General of Ireland, Sydney
  • Nicholas Shand Memorial, The Echo Newspaper
  • Hug, Byron Bay Community and Cultural Centre
  • East, Gaia Resort, Northern Rivers.

Commission

In November 1995, the original artwork was installed in East Sydney for 18 months as part of South Sydney Council’s temporary art program to promote artwork and embellish public spaces. At the time, Loui submitted a proposal to South Sydney Council for approval. Her inspiration came from her years as a teenage art student walking through the area to East Sydney Tech and seeing the women standing in their doorways.

The artwork proved controversial and was vandalised multiple times, needing repair by the artist with some members of the community petitioning for its removal. It was eventually returned to the artist at the end of the 18-month installation period. Later, Joy found a home as part of Macquarie University’s permanent collection.

Following a notice of motion on 23 November 2023, the City of Sydney Council resolved to investigate options to bring Joy or a replica back to East Sydney. Public feedback was requested for the proposal. The response was one of overwhelming support with more than 80% of replies in favour of the proposal. The City of Sydney moved to work with the artist and Macquarie University to produce a replica for reinstatement at the original site.

Inscription

A plaque on the sandstone plinth reads:

Originally placed here in 1995, JOY acknowledges sex workers who have lived and worked in and around Darlinghurst since colonisation.

The sculpture recognises the complex contribution these women have made in shaping Sydney’s social and economic history and importantly of NSW being the first place in the world to decriminalise sex work. JOY’s return to this site in bronze followed public requests calling for her reinstatement.

Dedicated to Lisa and Wendy
Unveiled by Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore AO 2025

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