About the Artists
Both artists have strong connections to Guildford and are known for their distinct visual voices. Kayrooz and French explore memory, place, and everyday life through photography, writing and painting. Their works sit side by side in this temporary outdoor gallery — an invitation to slow down, look closer, and rediscover beloved local places.
Guildford Laneway Gallery brings contemporary art right into the heart of the neighbourhood.
Where: Guildford Laneway
Hayley Megan French
Hayley Megan French. Photo by Garry Trinh, 2022
Guildford Laneway Gallery is presenting French’s suburban painting series The Pipeline (2018-2022).
After setting up home in Guildford, Hayley Megan French unpacked a box of Polaroid cameras, that would go on to unearth new ways of looking at her new home suburb. Capturing Guildford by Polaroid, Hayley started painting directly onto the Polaroid photos which became The Pipeline - an evolving project of painted-over Polaroids of local, suburban places.
“I paint over the polaroids because I want them to be more than photographs of this place, but narratives that can recall different and broader experiences.” – Hayley Megan French
Gillian Kayrooz
Gillian Kayrooz. Photo by Jason Sukadana
Bio | Works | Instagram
Guildford Laneway Gallery is presenting Kayrooz’s Commonground, 2021, 35mm film, Guildford.
“Commonground is a photographic series that revisits the suburbs I grew up in and the places I’ve spent most of my life moving through for school, work, family and friends. Through the simple act of walking, I take you with me across spaces of domestic and social utility: laneways, arcades, carparks, local malls and main streets. These are the often overlooked arteries of daily life in Western Sydney. The works serve as an informal record of a suburb in flux. Guildford, like much of the region, is rapidly changing as family-run businesses, ageing infrastructure and familiar facades give way to development. This walk and documentation becomes a small act of holding space for what still remains and contributes to a future archive of place.” – Gillian Kayrooz
