An iconic Springvale community-artwork from the 1990s has journeyed from Greater Dandenong’s archives back into the public imagination at Walker Street Gallery and Art Centre.
The Maze was a huge papier-mache installation created by artist Suesy Circosta and more than 100 young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in 1991.
The multitude of two-metre panels spanned a shared world – rich with the artists’ fears and desires, folk tales and animal iconography.
Thirty-five years on, the original has been incorporated into a new pulsing intersensory, video soundscape by multidisciplinary artists Fayen d’Evie and Jon Tjhia.
The work ‘The Maze: Reimagined, back notes’ brings in the voice of youth from 2026 and brings back the circa-1991 participants, now in their 50s.
There are grabs from interviews with Dandenong High School students and Connections Art Space members, as well as a “collective song”.
Meanwhile, a second exhibition at Heritage Hill Museum will look back at the making of the original Maze.
The Maze was a powerful example of community art, bringing together a diversity of views and cultures, curator Miriam La Rosa says.
It travelled across Australia with even plans to tour internationally.
For most of the youths, it was their first involvement in an art project. At least one has kicked on as a professional artist.
La Rosa says The Maze’s core theme of giving young people tools to deal with conflict still resonates.
“We are currently experiencing another conflict, one of many going on, in the world.
“Being grounded in conflict resolution – it makes this work incredibly important and relevant.
“People are overwhelmed with options and possibilities – that’s something that people are facing with technology and AI. We’re losing touch with reality in many ways.
“This is a reminder of the power of connection, community, and coming together to face these anxieties.”
La Rosa says there’s a “commonality” between the two works and two eras – getting to the heart of “what makes us human”.
“In a sense, nothing has changed from the 90s but so much has changed.”
In a statement, d’Evie and Tjhia said The Maze Remagined was part of a “continuing conversation” on the conditions of “our shared world and our ways through it”.
“(The original The Maze) invited its participants to articulate their sense of themselves in the world, and to share how they understood the world.
“The young people … have now lived adult lives, while their contemporary counterparts are searching for their own answers – and with a great sense of urgency.”
The Maze: Reimagined is at Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, Wednesdays-Saturdays 11am-3pm until 16 May.
The Maze: Past, Present and Legacy is at Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10am–2pm.
