The Maze Returns: A Contemporary Revisiting of a Landmark Community Artwork
City of Greater Dandenong
Fayen d’Evie and Jon Tjhia. The Maze: Reimagined. back ↑ notes
Greater Dandenong City Council proudly presents The Maze, an iconic large‑scale papier‑mâché installation. First crafted in 1991 under the guidance of artist Suesy Circosta, more than 100 young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in the former City of Springvale were involved in its creation. More than three decades later, this beloved artwork returns to the community, reinterpreted, expanded and newly activated for contemporary audiences.
From 7 March to 16 May 2026, visitors are invited to experience The Maze: Reimagined, back ↑ notes at Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, alongside a museum collection exhibition, The Maze: Past, Present and Legacy, at Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens. Together, these companion exhibitions reconnect cultures and generations, inviting audiences to explore themes of identity, belonging, nature, hope, and conflict resolution—while reflecting on how the concerns of young people then continue to shape our world today.
In this new iteration curated by Miriam La Rosa, contemporary multidisciplinary artists Fayen d’Evie and Jon Tjhia respond to the artwork’s legacy through a deeply collaborative and access‑centred process, creating a ‘polyphonic descriptive archive’ of the original panels - extending the artwork's founding enquiries into contemporary urgencies. Their contribution includes sensorial experiences, intergenerational reflections, and new provocations shaped by disability-led and access-led creative methodologies.
As expressed by the artists: “Crafted three decades ago by many, many hands, The Maze is known to be beloved by a wide community. It invited its participants to articulate their sense of themselves in the world, and to share how they understood that world. The young people who worked on The Maze have now lived adult lives, while their contemporary counterparts are searching for their own answers – and with a great sense of urgency. With our many differences in tow, we are increasingly seeking not only meaning but agency: who is responsible? Who has power? What forces are determining the world not only as we understand or envision it, but as we inherit and experience it? And what, then, can we build? How will we work together?
As an artwork presented to the Dandenong and wider community, it follows that it should be a continuing conversation; the conditions of our shared world, and our ways through it, change in countless ways every day.”
Their revisiting sits within a larger program that includes a museum collection exhibition comprising archival photographs, documents, and original remnants from the 1990s development, offering audiences a rare opportunity to reflect on the long‑lasting impact of community‑led art and its power to build bridges across time.
Exhibition Details
The Maze: Reimagined, back ↑ notes
Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre
Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–3pm
The Maze: Past, Present and Legacy
Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens
Wednesday–Thursday, 10am–2pm
Exhibition Opening: Saturday 7 March 2 - 5pm
Exhibition Dates: 7 March - 16 May
For more information or to register, visit greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au/themaze
For updates and program highlights, follow @ArtsGreaterDandy on social media.
ENDS
ARTIST BIOS
Fayen d’Evie
Fayen d’Evie is an artist, writer, publisher and academic, working at the forefront of experimental, disability-led art and design. A lifetime of fluctuating vision has spurred Fayen’s creative research into blindness as a critical and imaginative position. Her projects are often collaborative, inviting audiences into sensorial encounters with artworks and texts. She has exhibited at major galleries and museums, and within biennales and festivals, across Australia and worldwide. Fayen has provided creative provocations and programming guidance to art institutions nationally and internationally, pursuing more inclusive structures and more ambitious curation of disability-led practice. She has published and presented widely on access-led and access-infused creative practice, and the radical potential of blindness to liberate ocularcentric artistic and curatorial practice. Fayen is a lecturer in the Master of Communication Design programme of RMIT University, teaching experimental typography, curatorial and exhibition design, and studios grounded in access and transformative pedagogies. She is also the founder of Access Lab & Library as well as independent imprint 3-ply, which approaches publishing as an experimental site for the creation, dispersal, and archiving of texts.
Jon Tjhia
Jon Tjhia is an artist, writer and editor whose work spans radio, podcasting, literature, photomedia, music, publishing, community organising and access. An award‑winning radiomaker and self-described “award‑losing” writer, his work has featured on BBC Radio 3/4, Un Magazine, LOOM, LIMINAL, the Powerhouse, Avantwhatever and WFMU. His projects have appeared internationally at institutions including the Barbican Centre, Manchester Literature Festival, City Gallery Wellington, Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne.
Jon’s practice is rooted in collaboration, communication, experimentation and access. He is a member of Access Lab & Library and the Manus Recording Project Collective, co-editor of Debris, and co‑founder of the literary podcast Paper Radio. Jon teaches Intersensory Digital Publishing at RMIT University and contributes to inclusive creative methodologies across media.
Contact details:
For interviews, images and further information please contact:
Jasmin de Wolf
Team Leader Creative City Promotions, City of Greater Dandenong
📞 0491 303 892
✉️ [email protected]
- Images
-
Download
The Maze.jpg
The Maze artwork
