Sculpting Support
By Rosamund Brennan
When Block was tasked with boosting retention and recruitment at Avivo, Mark Braddock chiselled out a unique solution—translating support into a striking series of public sculptures. In this article, three experts explore how support underpins life, relationships and art.
THE WORD SUPPORT derives from the Latin supportare—to carry, to hold up. But support is not purely physical; it is also emotional, structural and relational. From a mother and child, to a therapist and client, supportive relationships are what holds societies together, allowing individuals to stand strong when they may falter.
Despite its vital role, support is something that often goes unseen and undervalued in public life. Jobs that are seen as traditionally ‘supportive’ or ‘caring’ are often poorly remunerated, and those who perform them rarely receive the recognition they deserve. But what if our society valorised the quiet, everyday acts of support as much as the exploits of celebrities, politicians or sporting heroes?
It’s a question at the heart of The Support Project—a Block campaign that celebrates the quiet strength of everyday relationships, particularly between support workers and their customers. Through a series of life-sized, intersecting sculptures, the project seeks to challenge stereotypes and reframe support as a shared, reciprocal force.
Here, we delve further into the project and hear from three experts—psychologist Professor Keith R McVilly, arts and social impact researcher Professor Michael Balfour and peer support worker Leila Braddock. They each provide a unique perspective on the concept of support and the transformative power of mutual care.
ABOVE: Mark Braddock creates the images that would become
the cut-out panels for The Support Project monuments.
Cornerstone of care: the psychology of support
Supportive relationships have long been a subject of psychological inquiry, recognised as the cornerstone of both personal resilience and societal cohesion. Professor Keith R. McVilly, a Registered Clinical Psychologist and Foundation Professorial Fellow for Disability & Inclusion at the University of Melbourne, emphasises that support work is a highly skilled profession—which can be transformational for all involved.
“Support work requires fundamental skills and the capacity to navigate complex needs. It's not a job you do between jobs,” he says. “We need people who can share their humanity and appreciate the humanity of the clients with which they’re working. It’s about building mutually trusting, respectful relationships.”
According to McVilly, whose research focuses on the well-being and community inclusion of people disabling experiences, this focus on mutually trusting, respectful relationships is crucial. When support relationships evolve into deep personal connections, they have profound impacts not only on mental wellbeing, but the development of key life skills.
“In our research, we found that those who had supportive, long term relationships were more likely to attract and sustain employment,” he says. “Long term relationships are really important for everyone’s health and well being, and no different for people with disabilities.”
The Support Project’s interdependent metal sculptures—two figures defined by their cut-out silhouettes, unable to stand alone—visually capture this essence. They serve as a powerful metaphor for the relational dynamics McVilly describes: true support is not a one-way street, but a reciprocal exchange that enriches both parties.
ABOVE: Working images for monument creation.
Rethinking heroism: the art of mutual support
While The Support Project emerged from a very practical challenge for disability services provider Avivo—that of recruiting and retaining support staff—the campaign itself was far more abstract. “I wanted to create something surprising and unexpected,” says Mark Braddock, co-founder and creative strategy director at Block. “Something that had longevity, that we could keep rolling out rather than a flash-in-the-pan campaign.”
A long-time dabbler in painting and drawing, and appreciator of the arts, Mark turned his attention to monuments and public sculpture, and how he could harness this medium to challenge stereotypes. “Monuments are often about heroic, dead, white men,” he explains. “And so I thought, what would a sculpture that memorialises a relationship look like?”
Eschewing the style of traditional sculpture, where a figure is carved into stone, Mark experimented with laser-cutting silhouettes into steel panels. The silhouettes were created from photographs of real Avivo support workers and customers. “In a way, I was playing with the negative space, and the idea of the hero that is not there—the person that doesn’t want to be celebrated.”
He then went about putting two panels together—depicting a support worker and customer—to create an intersecting, self-supporting sculpture. “Suddenly, it all made sense,” Mark reflects.
Exhibited in prime locations across Perth, including the WA Museum Boola Bardip, the State Theatre Centre and Kings Park, Mark hopes these life-sized sculptures will spark important conversations and dispel some common myths around support work.
“The relationship between support workers and their customers is an interesting one because there’s so much stigma and stereotyping on both sides,” he says. “It’s about restoring agency to both parties … and ultimately just celebrating the relationships that allow people to live their fullest lives.”
ABOVE: Monuments installed at Kaarta Gar-Up Lookout,
Kings Park, Western Australia.
Carved through connection: art as a vehicle for social impact
Professor Michael Balfour, Head of the School of Arts and Media at UNSW, has long championed the idea that art can transform societies by engaging marginalised communities to rewrite their own stories—and by seeing themselves reflected in public discourse. From his formative community theatre work in Belfast to co-designing augmented reality with seriously ill young people in Australia, Balfour has witnessed art's extraordinary social benefits firsthand.
“For me, art is often working at an emotional or affective level,” he says. “So if you think about music as something that transcends language and pulls at emotional or psychological aspects of feelings. Or theatre enabling people to access particular emotions or to reframe their view on a particular topic. Then public art is about distilling the experience of life and representing it in a way that can be powerful, but it also allows audiences to see things in a different way.”
Balfour emphasises that representation and co-design is often a key success factor in building successful social impact arts projects—in line with The Support Project’s approach of developing the sculptures in consultation with Avivo’s support workers and customers. “The inclusion of people with lived experience is absolutely crucial,” he says. “That’s why I see this as such a fantastic project,” Balfour says.
And with the recent increased federal funding commitment for collaborative projects between the Australia Council for the Arts and the Department of Health, Balfour is hopeful that initiatives like The Support Project will continue to transform our public spaces, ultimately sculpting social change.
ABOVE: Feeling the impact of the monuments together as sculptural works.
Foundations of reciprocity: support that transforms
Leila Braddock’s experience powerfully embodies the mutual nature of support. Reflecting on her journey as both a client and a peer support worker, she observes, “obviously one can't exist without the other, and there needs to be kind of a mutual understanding and mutual respect.” For Leila, effective support is built on clear boundaries and genuine connection. “I think boundaries are really important,” she explains, noting that having defined guidelines makes it easier for both parties to know what is acceptable.
Leila Braddock, who is autistic and lives with ADHD, shares how her support worker, Emma, has been instrumental in helping her manage day-to-day tasks, from tidying up her home, to getting her dishes done and keeping her life-admin in check. “She’s been wonderful ... She has kept me afloat in hard times.”
Leila also points out that support work is often misunderstood. “It’s a very cool relationship,” she remarks, highlighting that the bond goes beyond a simple transaction. Instead, it’s built on shared experiences and mutual care—a dynamic that often defies stereotypes about support work. “It’s an ongoing understanding,” Leila says. “I would never feel comfortable asking someone to just do things for me … but she knows when to push me. If she can’t support me to do something, she’ll just do it for me. I’m just so grateful for the way she shows up for me.”
For Leila, the true value of support lies in its ability to foster independence while nurturing personal growth. Her experience echoes the core message of The Support Project: effective support is a balanced, reciprocal bond that empowers both the giver and the receiver, transforming everyday care into a foundation for lasting change.
ABOVE: Creating conversations that support societal change.
Rethinking support: celebrating mutual care
Ultimately, The Support Project challenges us to rethink what it means to support and be supported. By transforming an abstract idea into life-sized, interdependent sculptures, the campaign bridges art, psychology and everyday experience.
Mark Braddock’s creative vision redefines heroism—not as isolated grandeur but as a shared, mutual bond. Professor Keith R McVilly reminds us that genuine support requires trust, skill and deep human connection, while Professor Michael Balfour underscores art’s power to reveal the hidden value of everyday relationships. Leila’s lived-experience, on both sides of the relationship, illustrates how reciprocal care fosters independence and resilience.
In a world where supportive work is too often overlooked and undervalued, The Support Project stands as a lasting monument to the strength that arises when we lift each other up, inviting us all to recognise and celebrate the quiet, everyday heroes among us.
