‘This shower screen represents the invisibility of the homelessness we experienced as a family. I picked a shower screen as it represents a sense of nakedness, of being vulnerable, helpless and exposed. We didn’t want to be judged or feel shame or be blamed – we wanted to stay invisible…
– Krystal
- Title: Invisible
- Artist: Krystal
- Year: 2024
- Medium: Clear PVC sheet
We lost our home in a storm when a neighbour’s tree fell on the house back in 2010. The insensitivity of us having to pay for the removal of his tree reflected what was to come over the following 14 years. Our neighbours schemed like vultures seeking to take advantage of our vulnerability, trying to convince us to sell the land. We would not give in. Selling now would impact badly on our future, we had to hold tight, stay under the radar of the banks and anyone who wanted to take advantage of us – pretending everything was OK. Our insurance wasn’t enough to rebuild and we couldn’t pay both rent and our mortgage. The insurance company gave us a rental property to live in for twelve months, but the development application to rebuild our home wasn’t approved by council within that time, in fact… it’s still not approved!
We were left with the choice of living off the insurance money and not being able to build – or living with family and friends who didn’t have room for a family of four. So at times the children would be living separately from us. We moved 14 times in the following 14 years. When staying with friends, I was sexually assaulted by a friend’s husband, in a bed I was sharing with our two young sons while my husband was away. My friend left her husband, but our precious friendship was broken by our shared memory of what he did to both of us. As a family we then lived illegally in office spaces with cheap rent. We all stayed strong holding onto each other’s pride and dignity in a mutual bond of secrecy. When I got cancer a kind family gave us a home to live in while I recovered. This only showed us how important family and staying together is and that kindness did exist. We used some of our savings meant for building our home to give our sons the best education and support we could. Our sons grew up, went to university and sought independence and a ‘home’ of their own. We went back to our property to live in the old “granny flat” – it was too small to have lived in as a family. When we returned neighbours said it was uninhabitable and demanded that the council demolish it. Having no money for court we fought for five years to prove compliance and be allowed to stay.
This chapter of our lives has been hard, but today I see how important it was that we did not give up. In this current economic climate, our sons, even though they have good jobs, may never be able to buy a home of their own. But we had good news, we are grandparents now and since we lost our home, the laws on lot sizes changed in our area. So we will finally build a home, and also be able to give our children land to build a home and raise their families.’
– Krystal