Spacecraft Studio / ARM Architecture / Launch Housing / Artist Kush K T Kuiy
Dandenong, Melbourne, 2023

Viv’s Place Dandenong

In August 2022, Launch Housing opened the doors of Viv’s Place, an Australian-first apartment building for women and children escaping family violence and homelessness, two of the biggest issues facing Australian society. The ambitiously scaled paintings located on arrival announce that African culture is unequivocally celebrated and an integral part of the buildings design. Spacecraft commissioned multi-disciplinary creative Kush KT Kuiy to work with us on an innovative social housing project designed by ARM architects.
The artworks were created in response to ARM’s overarching theme of ‘Home’ and thinking through how home might be represented for the projects demographic the African diaspora.  Kush settled on beadwork as a unifying symbol of East African and pan African diasporic cultures, drawing on experiences growing up in Melbourne and her parents experiences growing up in South Sudan, reflecting on her African identity and negotiating concepts of home.
By choosing to work ‘in residence’ at the studio Kush goes on another journey to explore the possibilities of mixing painting and screen printing techniques. The finished artworks were installed throughout the public and common spaces as stretched paintings, symbols of safety and welcome for African women and children arriving at Viv’s Place.