Baba Yaga Houses
Artist: Marwa Fahmy
Year of Work: 2012
Location: Central Instritute of Technology, to East of
Entrance to Building 2, Aberdeen Street, near Museum Street, Northbridge. City of Perth
Asset Type: Public Art
Provenance: Metropolitan
Redevelopment Authority. Now City of Perth Public Art Collection.
Baba Yaga Houses are a suite of whimsical, brightly coloured sculptures by West Australian artist Marwa Fahmy, installed at Museum Park in the North Metropolitan TAFE precinct of Northbridge.
Comprising of three individual but complimentary sculptural elements, Baba Yaga Houses draw inspiration from the Russian fairy-tale of Baba Yaga, and depicts Baba as a ferocious-looking old woman who flies around the forest in a mortar wielding a pestle, who lives deep in the forest in a ghoulish hut mounted on chicken legs.
According to Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out and even play a maternal role. She is enigmatic with striking beauty and a deep connection to forestry wildlife.
Fahmy’s fairy tale houses are rendered in cast and engraved aluminium and reinforced internally by powder-coated steel; the tallest stands at 3.2 metres and the lowest at 2.4 metres high. The engraved aluminium bodies are wildly patterned.
Commissioned as part of the Museum Street Precinct Park Public Art Project, comprising a public art competition, the project was jointly run by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (MRA) and Central Institute of Technology (Central) - now North Metropolitan TAGE.
At the time of installation, Marwa said “I wanted to introduce a design that would be quirky, fun and express the multiculturalism found in the area”. City of Perth Public Art Collection