I have memories of days spent playing in the street – hopscotch, handball, king queen jack dunce. For the Redfern Biennale 2014 (a one-day show that took place around a three-block low-rise public housing estate near the Damien Minton Gallery) I spent the day shimmying along on a ‘dolly’ making a hopscotch that ended up 978 squares long. Locals and visitors came up to chat and reminisce as I wound my way around the blocks; adults and kids jumped until they found me at the end, still drawing (see https://twitter.com/clairsimpson85/status/449055458091745280).
At 6 o’clock I downed tools and left a bucket of chalk in case anyone wanted to keep on going. I didn’t know at the time that it was illegal to mark up a hopscotch. A couple of weeks later an amendment to the Graffiti Control Act 2008 was passed, saying the Act ‘does not apply to the marking of any public footpath or pavement with chalk, including, but not limited to, marking out a hopscotch or handball court with chalk.’