New murals to provide welcoming spaces for patients

30 May 2023

Both the Caritas and Gorman Unit courtyards have undergone a well-earned transformation, and now proudly display beautiful mural works, thanks to funding from St Vincent’s Curran Foundation.

Jasmin Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman is a self-taught visual artist and graphic designer whose aim is to create connections through art.

“The story I wanted to portray in this mural is about people coming together and having connection, I think it’s important as a basic need for human beings to have connections with other people”.

Jasmin explains the symbolism in her mural. “The largest circles represent place and people. They are scattered across the wall, connected with the white lines which are connection lines and for me, they’re always in the shape of rivers and waterways. I always like to acknowledge the fact that water across the land represents life and vitality, and that’s connecting all of our people and place symbols.

The leaves across the bottom signify nurturing, growth and things that need to be cared for. In this environment it’s important having that care and support, and a nurturing space. A safe space and having those meaningful connections to people and places.

Caritas Mural (detail)

In the Gorman Unit, the entire external walls have been adorned in Australian flora at the hands of talented local artist, Sarah McCloskey.

“We had a workshop with patients and had all the different plants and leaves and shapes and colours and talked about what we liked the look and feel of the most, and did drawings based on those.

There was a real desire to the mural as an extension of the physical garden, and a theme around flowers, native plants, and leaves. So we’ve got some eucalypts, funnel flowers, banksias, gum blossoms, gum nuts and waratah which are native flora but also quite local to Sydney”.

Gorman Unit Mural (detail)