We were curious to know what became of Mary Lou Pavlovic‘s sky writing project previewed here last week when the AFL Grand Final was clouded over. Pavlovic released the following statement earlier today:
STATEMENT TO PRESS
Melbourne artist Mary Lou Pavlovic was due to stage a sky writing project addressing domestic violence over the AFL Grand Final last weekend in Melbourne at the MCG stadium. Her original idea was to write “AFL hits Girls”. Unable to find a pilot in the country willing to write the statement (despite assurances from lawyers that defamation risk was extremely minimal)she decided to write, “Stop Bruising Her”.
The project was cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
The artist then decided to attempt the project on Sunday morning after the game, using slogan, “Footy Bruised Her” as a tribute to all women who suffered violence after the AFL grand final game. This was to be over an empty MCG stadium. In clear blue skies at 11am yesterday the project was cancelled a second time as the pilot’s plane developed a fuel block and he was forced to terminate the flight.
On the next clear day (at the moment this is Tuesday 27th September,) the artist and pilot will go up in the skies again over an empty MCG stadium to complete the work. The slogan will change to suit the time but will pointedly address the increased levels of violence that women suffer on Grand Final Day.
Mary Lou Pavlovic would like to apologise to all press who attended the MCG yesterday but hopes the interest in the project continues, as women who suffer
domestic violence deserve in the very least to be heard in the media.She would also like to thank the Hack team at Triple J for their well researched, and fair preview story about women and football violence (Friday 23 Sep 2005) in which a woman came forward and described her experiences of domestic violence on Grand Final Day.
AFL reflects community values, and despite recent moves to accept training in the issue of fair treatment of women, the issue of violence has hardly been addressed. Until we can take a cold hard look at the way we treat each other in this society we will not make any social progress.
