Barangaroo Doppelganger by Richard Goodwin

By Benjamen Judd

Over the next 12 months, a peculiar – yet profoundly beautiful – thing will be happening in Sydney.

Starting on April 16, artist Richard Goodwin will push a trolley from Sydney’s Barangaroo up to Hyde Park in honour of a man who Goodwin once said was the only true resident of the city of Sydney – a homeless man who named Joseph Cindric.

In 1994 Joseph Cindric, the “trolley man” of Sydney streets, died after walking between Walsh Bay and Hyde Park every day of his life. Known to all of Sydney, since the end of World War 2, he nonetheless died alone and homeless with artist Richard Goodwin, his assistant and 2 nurses the only people at his funeral in Rookwood Cemetery.

Dubbed “Barangaroo Doppelganger”, the work involves Goodwin retracing the Cindric’s path through the city, with the artist pushing a replica of Cindric’s original trolley, which will be inscribed with the words “Barangaroo Masterplan” on a black box, and also features a gilt bronze replica model of the new proposed Casino on the front.

The performance will take place daily over the span of a whole year, finishing on April 16 in 2016. This endurance work questions the phenomenon of the inclusion of such a monolith as the Casino, from outside what was already a compromised urban planning process.

A challenging, warming and ultimately questioning act of art, Goodwin’s Barangaroo Doppelganger will be a fascinating critique of the city while at the same time remembering one of it’s forgotten citizens.

Barangaroo Doppelganger will take place for twelve months starting April 16 2015 until April 16 2016 and will follow a planned route from Barangaroo to Hyde Park in the CBD.