Susan Flavell
Hamilton Hill visual artist Susan Flavell (1964-) was involved in the Roe-8 Protest; not only locking on and being arrested, but also making large-scale artworks used in the campaign.
In 2001 Flavell moved to Dianne St, Hamilton Hill and built a studio at the rear of the block. She has lived there ever since.
Through the Roe-8 protests I made many more connections; now I know most of my neighbours.
~ Susan Flavell
Flavell’s signature style is large-scale sculptures of animals and human figures, made with strips of cardboard. In 2015 she made a 4-metre-long ‘white elephant’, with Alison Bolas and other volunteers, at the Randwick Stables, in Hamilton Hill.
This elephant led the protest in the 2015
Fremantle Festival Parade and, soon after, was delivered to the WA Main Roads Department.
Elephant being built at Randwick stable October 2015, photo Jo Darbyshire
Susan also participated in one of the first lock-on events at WA Limestone in Bibra Lake, on 20 December 2016.
I got up at 4 am and was locked on the rear gate by 5am. I sat on a chair and my thumbs were locked into a thumb-lock, inside a bent metal tube up to my elbows. Sarah Ward was locked onto the front gate. We blocked them so they couldn’t get any machinery out… I didn’t really eat or drink for the seven hours I was locked-on, then they cut me out with an angle-grinder.
~ Susan Flavell
Susan Flavell locked onto WA Limestone gates, December 2016
Flavell’s work is inspired by her involvement in Roe 8 and driven by a fundamental commitment to the use of recycled materials.