Curated by Juddy Roller, the Brim Silo Art project was painted on the façade of 6 towering 30 metre high, decommissioned grain silos in the Wimmera region of Victoria and attracted extensive national (and international) attention.
In the process it helped to uncover the essence of the many social issues affecting small regional towns. These include population decline due to the use of new farming technology and heavy drought conditions resulting in an uncertain future for many isolated farming towns located in rural areas of Australia.
For this project, Guido undertook a documentary based photographic study of the life and community in Brim. This can be considered an archetypal case study representative of the broad spectrum of social issues faced by regional small towns in Australia.
Drawing from these issues the work captures the generational differences and resilience of those who have continued to work the land. The artist chose to by represent a broad spectrum of the Brim Community by portraying in archetypal form the different generations of the community, including an acknowledgment of the importance of the female contribution to farming the land.
Aesthetically the artwork aims to convey the strong sense of community spirit revealed to Guido while spending time with local community members. The work fuses the different elements of farming life into the monumental structure of the now disused grain silo, which in itself is a historical symbol of the changing landscape of the Wimmera.
Video by - Round 3 Creative
Artist - Guido Van Helton
Produced by – Juddy Roller
Presenting Partners - Brim Active Community Group, GrainCorp, Regional Arts Victoria, Taubmans, Loop Colours.
